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“I never expected I would have to take her.” The English accent appeared stronger than he remembered but still easily understood. “I was here only on the express wishes of my uncle who regretted his position almost immediately after he’d been contacted that you were pregnant. Once he realized his own fate, he worried continuously about you and his child. That’s when he called me.”
“Your uncle?” Kurt didn’t want to slow the flow of her story, but he had to be sure.
“Yes, the brother of my mother. He was a tender-hearted man, and I loved him like a father.”
“Can I ask your name?”
“Lin Jing.”
“It’s what you called yourself the last time we met, but when I went to find you at the address you gave me, they didn’t know you at all.”
“Yes, no doubt. I used many names while I was in Dallas.”
Ruby broke in and said, “Tell me more about your uncle. And why you brought her back to me. Was it because the police shut down the organization he’d contacted?”
“Oh, no. He paid them off as soon as he knew that there had been a successful result. He even made them release all his paperwork, ashamed that he’d been affiliated with such a group. By then, he’d known about his cancer and had no intentions of following through with the original plan. What he wanted was for me to protect you and make sure the company didn’t decide to still take the baby and pass it off to another man.”
Kurt asked, “You were the one who helped us during the fight in the alley that night?”
“Yes, that was me. I couldn’t let Ruby be hurt or killed. I had promised my uncle.”
“How could he ask something like that of you?” Kurt had to know. “You’re a woman and small in build. What was he thinking?”
“That I have been trained in Shaolin Kung Fu and other martial arts. In fact, I own a studio in Shanghai that trains only females.”
“I see. So, he sent you here to protect his child?”
“No. To protect the mother of his child. Once the baby was born, the original idea had been for me to leave the country.”
“And take the baby with you?”
“No, no, not at all. I was to make sure the pregnancy continued without any interference from the Jia tíng. The original plan was for me to leave after the baby was safely born. You see, we knew Ruby had come to love the child, and she planned on keeping it. Once my uncle understood his baby would be well looked after, he felt comfortable to leave things as they were.”
“Then why did you kidnap her?” Kurt demanded.
***
“And bring her back.” Ruby reminded Kurt. Plus, she had to know.
“Because the cancer Uncle lived with for years took a turn for the worse, and he was dying. Truthfully, they didn’t believe he’d last as long as he did. He fought so hard to live only to see if he’d left a son or daughter behind.”
“Would having a son made that big of a difference?” Ruby asked.
“It might have at first. But by the time it came close to Wei’s birth, it didn’t matter. Just knowing he had a child to follow his path in this life had become enough. I couldn’t ask you to understand the gravity of the situation at the time, but my uncle died in extreme pain so he could see his daughter before the end.”
“That’s why you took her? To show him… what do you call her… Wei?” Ruby had shifted her nightie to the wandering lips and eased a sigh of relief when the baby’s tiny rosebud mouth latched on and began to suck. Gently smoothing her tiny head, she let the incredible sensation of peace implode inside. “Please tell me he was able to see her.”
“Yes. He died about an hour ago. We spent as much time with him on the video screen as he could manage. Unfortunately, he kept passing out, but then he’d reawaken, begging me to let him see her one last time. I’ve never known him to show such love. It was beautiful and worth whatever punishment I face now.”
Lin Jing looked towards Kurt. “I know I broke the law, and I’m sorry. I’d truly believed my uncle wouldn’t be able to live long after he’d seen her the first time. I had planned to bring the baby back that very night and leave her in the nursery. But he struggled on, fighting against the ungodly pain just so he could spend time with her. Now that it’s been so long, I couldn’t just dump her and leave. You deserved an explanation. And Wei deserves to know about the courage of her father… how much he loved her.”
Ruby reached out a hand to Lin and waited until the startled girl enclosed her fingers. “The only punishment you will face… is promising to spend time with me and Wei so you can tell us all about your uncle, share his world with us so we can make sure that Wei grows up feeling his love. We want you to be a part of our family now, Lin Jing.”
The Chinese girl clinging to Ruby’s hand broke down then. Her tears overflowed as she brought Ruby’s hand to her cheek and then bowed her forehead over it in supplication. “My real name is Yu Yan.”
