“No. I just found out.” She paused. “I had a tag on his name. So that if anything came in on him, the arresting officer would know to contact me.”

“You were watching him.”

She threw up her hands. “Gabe, you’re missing the point. We have chosen these people to shepherd our child into the world.”

“The last I knew he didn’t have a uterus,” Gabe said. “Shannon is probably going to want to do this more than ever. They’ll have some legal expenses.”

“We can’t use Shannon,” she said. “That’s out of the question.”

“The paperwork, all fucking nineteen pages of the contract, have been reviewed and initialed. We can’t stop now, Rena.”

“Our unborn child will be going on visits to the state penitentiary. Is that what you want? Is that what you’d be satisfied with? Happy with?” She got up, too agitated to sit. “People talk and have long memories. Years from now, it’ll get thrown in our kid’s face. People will say, oh, you were that baby.”

“Rena,” Gabe said, his voice low, his tone even. “Is it possible that you’re overreacting?”

She didn’t know. The idea that their child would ever be considered less than...perfect. Or that he or she might actually be less than perfect. After all, who knew exactly how much a fetus absorbed from the outside world while in the womb? She just couldn’t take that chance. Not on something so important. “This breaks the morals clause in the contract.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked again.

She didn’t know what the fuck she wanted. “We’ll find someone else,” she said.

He shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“We will,” she insisted.

“We’ve already spent a lot of money on this. And with me being back in school for a job that’s going to pay less than what I was making, it maybe wasn’t a good idea to begin with.”

It was what she’d been afraid of. He was going to back out. She felt sick. All their planning, all their hoping. It would fall apart.

She would fall apart.

“I have to go back to work.” She picked up her keys. They felt heavy in her hand. “We can talk later.”

“Seems as if you’ve made up your mind,” he said. “I’ve got to go, too. I’ll be home late.”

He walked out the door, leaving her in her silent kitchen. Her phone buzzed. It was A.L. Are you coming back tonight? No problem if you’re not.

On my way, she texted back.

We’ve got bus video of Coyote Frogg was his response.

Eighteen

“Everything okay?” A.L. asked.

Hardly, thought Rena. “Yeah, fine.” She couldn’t even remember the drive back to work.