Slade's Secret Son Read Online Free PDF

marriage doesn’t work out, I want your word that you’ll give me a divorce and not fight me for custody.”
    “I’ll want joint custody.”
    “I don’t want him bounced back and forth between us. I want primary custody and I get to set the conditions.”
    Slade recognized the determined look on her face. If he wanted her to marry him, he was going to have to make concessions. “I want your word that you’ll be fair.”
    It hurt that he didn’t trust her, but then, she hadn’t exactly demonstrated an unquestionable trust in him, either. “You have my word.”
    “And you have my word.”
    “Then give me a few minutes to pull myself together.” She looked down at the outfit she’d been wearing for two days now and wrinkled her nose. “I need to shower and put on fresh clothes.”
    Following Slade’s exit, Lisa stood for a long moment frowning at the closed door. She told herself that she should be pleased he was being so “civilized” about this matter. But then that’s what she should have expected. Slade Logan was a man in total control of himself…A practical man who had a firm conviction of what was right and what was wrong, of what his duty was, and hehad the ability to act on those principles without allowing his emotions to interfere with reason.
    Lisa had finished showering and just returned to her room to dress when a knock sounded on her door, immediately followed by the entry of her aunt and her mother.
    “Ester and I have been discussing your situation and we’re not sure marrying Slade Logan is the right thing to do,” Helen blurted, the moment the door was closed.
    “We’ve done fine on our own,” Ester added.
    “I’m doing this to assure Andy’s future in case something happens to me,” Lisa explained. She looked to her mother. “You’re fifty-three. You’ll be seventy-three before Andy is even twenty-one.” She didn’t even point out that Ester would be into her eighties.
    “We just aren’t certain you should be tying yourself to a man for the sake of a child,” Helen said worriedly.
    “I’m not tying myself to him. I have his word that if the marriage doesn’t suit me, we’ll get a divorce and I’ll have primary custody of Andy without a fight.”
    “Do you have that in writing?” Ester demanded.
    “I have Slade’s word.”
    “I think you should get it in writing,” Helen encouraged.
    Lisa understood their concern and if she’d been dealing with any man other than Slade Logan she would have insisted on having the agreement in writing, as well, but in that moment she realized how fully she trusted him. “Like I said before, Slade is a man of honor. If I doubted that, I would never have gone to him. His word is his bond.”
    Ester pursed her lips into a displeased pout and Lisa braced herself. That look meant her aunt was preparingan all-out assault to get what she wanted. Glancing at her mother, she saw the same expression on Helen’s face.
    Then, abruptly, Ester shrugged, the pout disappeared and was replaced by her “I have the solution” look. Heading out the door, she said over her shoulder, “If that’s true, he won’t mind putting it in writing.”
    Nodding her head in agreement, Helen followed her sister.
    “Leave Slade alone,” Lisa called after them, but even as she issued the order, she knew it was falling on deaf ears. Quickly dressing, she raced downstairs. She found Slade in the kitchen with her mother and aunt. He was sitting at the table writing out something on a piece of paper. “This isn’t necessary,” Lisa said, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.
    “If it puts your mother’s and your aunt’s minds at ease then it is,” Slade returned, continuing to write as he spoke.
    Lisa gave the two older women an angry, impatient look. “I really can’t believe you did this.”
    Ester regarded her with self-righteous dignity. “I watch those court shows on television all the time and this is just the sort of thing the judge advises