The Baby Battle Read Online Free PDF Page A

about to spoon-feed him legal pointers.
    In a nine-by-ten blue windowless room there were two guest chairs, one blood-collection chair with oversize padded arm rests, and a cabinet wall with a counter and sink. There were a couple of cheap and ugly prints on the walls, along with a factoid poster entitled “DNA andYou.” The room smelled of antiseptic and a strawberry-shaped air freshener that was dangling from a cabinet doorknob.
    Olivia took the seat nearest the exit, holding Flynn’s carrier on her lap.
    “My name’s Jamie,” said the pretty blonde medical tech in a chirpy voice. “Today’s procedure is painless and simple. Mom, before we begin, our chain of custody procedure requires that you show a photo ID, then we’ll need your thumbprint and I’ll take a Polaroid of you. Also, as the child in question’s legal guardian, you’ll need to sign consent forms on his behalf. After that, I’ll collect your DNA samples using buccal swabs, which are kind of like a supersize Q-Tip, to rub excess skin cells from the inside of both your and your son’s cheeks.”
    “Will it hurt him?” Olivia asked.
    “Not at all,” the woman assured her with a warm smile. “He probably won’t even wake up.” Looking to Tag, she said, “Are you also being tested?”
    “Yes,” he said, still standing, his hands in his pants pockets. He wore another dark suit. His shirt was an impeccably starched cobalt-blue. His tie was a striped study in varying shades of blue with an occasional slice of yellow. “Though my official appointment isn’t for another hour.”
    “Want me to go ahead and do all of you now?”
    “No,” Olivia barked, wanting only to escape. This whole thing was making her feel like a guest on Jerry Springer.
    “Yes,” Tag said.
    “Which will it be?” The med tech glanced up from a notation she’d just made in Olivia’s chart.
    Tag glared in her direction—the man’s determination gave off its own heat wave.
    “Go ahead and fit him in,” Olivia said, more out of her wish to both leave and avoid an argument than any charity she might’ve felt in her heart.
    “Thank you,” he silently mouthed.
    He wasn’t welcome.
    The tech left to find his file.
    “I appreciate you caving on this point,” he said. “Now, if you’d just let me hold our son, we’d be like one happy family.”
    “He’s not yours.” Olivia ground out the words from between clenched teeth. “A fact we will soon enough have verified.”
    Sitting beside her, he sighed.
    “What?”
    He angled to face her. “Why are you so hostile? You’re not the only one who stands to be hurt by all of this.”
    “Hurt?” Tears, hot and stinging, filled her eyes while a knot blocked her throat. “Oh—having a stranger appear out of nowhere demanding I hand over my son is a bit more serious than that.”
    “Lady, I’ve tried to—”
    “Okay…” The tech was back, this time with a fresh bundle of paperwork Olivia recognized from the pile she’d earlier had to fill out. “This is for you,” she said,handing him a clipboard and pen. “I’ll also need your ID, a thumbprint and photo of you for our records.”
    Tag shot Olivia a brief glare before thanking the tech and commencing with his assignment.
     
    “I S THIS WHAT YOU’VE BEEN waiting for?” Thursday morning Alice waltzed into Tag’s office bearing a FedEx envelope. “It’s from the lab.”
    Nervous didn’t begin to describe the emotions churning Tag’s stomach. He knew in his heart Olivia’s baby was also his. At the lab, the more he’d looked at the little guy, the more in love he’d fallen. In the quiet of his lonely nights Tag had already made plans. Which area of his office to transform into a nursery. Whether or not he wanted his son to play Little League baseball, peewee football or both. Would he grow up to be an oilman? Or branch out into something more to his own liking?
    “Want me to open it for you?” Alice wagged the envelope.
    Seated at his desk, he