Please don't let him hate me for doing this to him, Rose thought as they walked together to the nursery to look at their little girl. Let him see how beautiful the baby is, with her perfect little nose and her big eyes and her soft sweet skin.

Then she and Bobby were in front of the nursery window. Even though Rose had already seen the baby, and held and nursed her, the same words that had come into her mind the first time came back now. She's mine! For a moment Rose forgot the man at her side and watched Carrie sleep. I'll never be alone again, she thought.

At the same time she heard Bobby draw in a deep breath. “My God, she's a blank slate,” she heard him whisper. “She can be anything she wants.”

Rose hadn't thought of that. “We have to be careful raising her,” she said. “We have to do it right.”

Bobby laughed. “There is no ‘right.’ She's my daughter! Bobby Manning's kid! She's going to be a princess! She's going to have whatever the hell she wants!” He kissed Rose. It was a kiss like the ones he used to give her when he was still grateful to her for handing him his career on a silver platter—and for taking care of him. “Thank you, ” he said softly. “Thank you for having her no matter what I said I wanted.”

And when she'd tried to protest that it had been an accident, he'd said, “I don't care how it happened.” Then he'd turned back to the baby. “Things are going to be good from now on, Rose,” he'd said. “I promise.”

It was the closest Bobby had ever come to admitting to the cheating. Rose had looked at little Carrie in the nursery and known that she finally had an ally in the battle against the Girls. But she also knew she had an obligation to the child.

I can't let her grow up thinking the way we live is right, Rose thought. We have to set a good example for her, give her a good sense of values. Everything we do is self-indulgent and trivial. We have to change.

But she didn't want to spring that on Bobby. Not right away. Because he was already changing. At least, that was what she thought.