Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a secretary with a manila folder. She was the no-nonsense type, but her eyes started crawling all over him the moment she entered the room. He knew women liked the way he looked, but, despite having seven younger sisters, he’d never figured out exactly why. In his eyes he looked like a guy.

The secretary, however, saw things a bit differently. When he’d walked into the office and announced himself as Mathias Jorik, she’d noticed that he was both lean and muscular, with broad shoulders, big hands, and narrow hips. Now she took in a slightly crooked nose, a killer mouth, and bluntly aggressive cheekbones. He wore his thick brown hair in a short, serviceable cut that couldn’t quite subdue a tendency to curl, and his tough, square jaw had just-try-and-punch-me written all over it. Since she generally found outrageously masculine men more annoying than appealing, it wasn’t until she’d given her boss the folder he’d requested and returned to her desk that she figured out what was so compelling about this one. Those flint-gray eyes reflected a sharp, unsettling degree of intelligence.

The attorney glanced at the folder, then looked back up at Mat. “You admit your ex-wife was pregnant with the older girl when you married her.”

“Let me run it by you one more time. Sandy told me the kid was mine, and I believed her until a few weeks after the ceremony, when one of her girlfriends told me the truth. I confronted Sandy, and she admitted she’d lied. I saw a lawyer, and that was it.” He still remembered the relief he’d felt at being able to leave behind everything he didn’t want.

Once again, the worm glanced down at the folder. “You sent her money for a number of years.”

No matter how hard Mat tried to hide it, sooner or later people figured out that he was a soft touch, but he didn’t believe a kid should have to suffer for her mother’s bad judgment. “Sentiment. Sandy had a good heart; she just wasn’t too discriminating about who she slept with.”

“And you contend you haven’t seen her since the divorce?”

“There’s no contention about it. I haven’t seen her in nearly fifteen years, which makes it really tricky for me to be the father of that second baby she had last year.” Naturally it was another girl. His entire life had been haunted by female children.

“Then why is your name on both children’s birth certificates?”

“You’d have to ask Sandy that.” Except no one was going to ask Sandy anything. She’d died six weeks ago driving drunk with her boyfriend. Since Mat had been on the road, he hadn’t learned about it until three days ago when he’d finally gotten around to checking his voice mail.