Chapter 2

The next morning, hard knocking woke me up.

It woke my parents too.

Caleb was on the doorstep, exactly as I'd expected.

"Morning, Warren. Colleen."

"Caleb, this early?" My mother had her reservations about him, but the Grangers had lived three doors down for twenty years, so she was warm anyway. "You haven't eaten, have you? Perfect timing. Sit down and have something."

The friendlier they were, the less he could hold his face together.

He had no interest in breakfast. His entire mind was on the baby. "No, no, thank you, I already ate. I came to see Sabrina... to check on the baby."

He said it looking straight past both of them at me.

"The baby?" My mother was genuinely lost now. "Caleb, what baby? Whose baby?"

Caleb blinked, and his voice went tight. "The little boy I brought over yesterday! I left him with Sabrina!"

I sat at the table peeling an egg, taking my time, and didn't look up.

Caleb came around the table and grabbed for my arm. "Sabrina! Where is he?"

He was rough enough about it that my father's face went dark. "You want to talk, talk. Keep your hands to yourself."

"Warren, I'm telling you, I gave her a baby!" Caleb's voice was shaking. He turned on me and almost shouted it. "Sabrina! Where is the baby?"

I smiled a little. "You seem awfully worked up. He isn't yours, is he?"

The room went silent.

Caleb's face locked. "What are you talking about? I found him on the side of the road."

"Right. So I put him back on the side of the road."

"Is that so?" I stood up, perfectly calm. "You said he was something you picked up. So I returned him where he belonged."

Caleb's pupils shrank. "Where did you take him?"

"The side of the road," I said easily. "That's where you found him, isn't it? I left him there. Maybe the parents who dumped him would grow a conscience and come back for him."

"What did you just say?" He caught my wrist, and the grip was so hard I felt the bones grind. "Sabrina! Don't joke with me!"

My father was on his feet instantly. "Let go of her, Caleb."

I pulled my hand free and rubbed the red band around my wrist. "I don't have time to joke with you. I still have to pack for school."

"School?" Caleb stared at me blankly. "You can't go overseas. If you go, who's going to take care of the baby?"

My mother looked from one of us to the other, completely at sea. "What baby? What are you two talking about? And Sabrina's term starts next month. We settled all of this ages ago."

Caleb pulled in a breath and forced a smile at her. "Colleen, let me explain later."

Then he turned and grabbed my arm again, pleading. "Sabrina, just tell me where he is. He's a baby."

I looked at the perfect, self-righteous certainty of a man who had used me, and my blood came up so fast I had my hand halfway raised to slap him when-