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“Jilly couldn’t have children,” she said slowly.
“She told you that?”
Candace nodded, miserably conscious that every word was knocking the nails further into the coffin of her hopes. Oh, heavens, what had she done? Had she ruined her chances of securing custody of Jennie? “She said that the IVF wasn’t working—that her doctor had established that she’d been one of those unlucky women who undergo menopause very early.”
Nick blew out a pent-up breath. “Well, clearly my wife was lying to someone. She told me that the IVF had been successful. That she was pregnant.” There was a strange note in his voice. “I watched her pregnancy progress over nine months…even though I was away a lot of that time. Hell, she spent a fortune on designer maternity wear.”
“And, of course, you had no reason not to believe her.”
Nick shook his head. “I had my doubts, but not for the reason you think. You see, I thought Jilly had a lover.” His mouth kinked. “Someone who’d obviously been more successful at impregnating her than I had been.”
Nick hadn’t even believed Jennie was his child?
Candace suppressed the urge to howl with frustration at the injustice of it all. If she’d said nothing about him being Jennie’s father, maybe he would’ve been only too glad to relinquish custody of the baby to her.
It was enough to make Candace feel seriously sick with regret.
Yet it wouldn’t have been right. How could she have taken Jennie under false pretenses? Nick had been lied to enough already…
She drew a deep breath and said slowly, “That must’ve been hard to accept.”
“Somewhat.”
Normally the dry retort would’ve amused her, but Candace couldn’t bring herself to smile. Not now. Maybe not ever…if she’d destroyed her chance of getting Jennie back. Yet she couldn’t stop the flood of sympathy for Nick.
“So Jilly faked her pregnancy.”
“Faked her pregnancy?”
This was awkward. “Only you know for sure whether it was possible. I have heard of women who hate their bodies when they’re pregnant—don’t want anyone to see them naked, move into a separate room. If Jilly had been like that…” Candace could feel herself coloring. She didn’t want to be privy to this man’s personal life with his dead wife. The thought of him and Jilly together caused her stomach to sink.
“It’s possible,” he said tightly.
“Jilly flew with me to the clinic where the insemination was done.”
“You went to Namkhet Island?”
Candace nodded.
“Jilly said she was planning to be inseminated there. I consented to my sperm being used—and acted out the whole fiction. I even received bills,” he said. “I never knew that she’d traded places with you nor that she never intended to undergo any of the procedures there herself. In fact, I came to believe she’d taken her lover with her and replaced my sperm with his.”
“I can vouch that there was no lover.”
“So the bills I received for the IVF procedures were your bills, not Jilly’s as I assumed?”
Candace’s discomfort increased. “Yes—that was part of the arrangement.”
“Of course.” Nick’s mouth twisted. “There was also a bill for double accommodation and shared meals at the most glamorous resort on the island. Jilly told me she needed time alone to steel herself against the very real possibility that the IVF might again not work. Once the hotel bill was forwarded to me for payment, I knew instantly that she’d lied to me.”
Candace felt sick. Clearly Nick had assumed Jilly had stayed there with her lover. “That was for me—I told Jilly it wasn’t necessary.” She hadn’t needed a luxury holiday to convince her that she was doing the right thing. She’d done it for Jilly and her husband who had no other way of getting the child they craved. “Jilly said it was important to her that she get to know me. It felt a little weird, but I told myself she wanted to make sure the surrogate she’d picked wasn’t a lunatic before she went through with the final insemination. I might’ve done the same thing in her place.”
Nick laughed without humor. “Receiving the bill was a relief. The worst of it all was I didn’t care that Jilly had taken a lover. I even hoped it might finally pave the way for a divorce.”
Poor Jilly.
What he’d told Candace gave her some insight into the relationship—or lack of relationship—between Jilly and Nick. It appeared they’d drifted apart…so separate they might as well have lived in different houses, on different continents. No wonder Jilly had been able to fake a pregnancy while arranging with a surrogate to create a baby her husband had known nothing about.
