She’d known this moment was coming. “Just a few weeks. I didn’t pay attention to . . . to my monthlies.” Her face heated to be discussing such a thing with Thomas there. He was so proper. “It was only when I discovered my jeans not fitting that I began to wonder and counted back. Liam didn’t want to call and tell you that kind of good news over the phone. We’d planned to come to see you next month.”
“That’s good, that’s good,” Thomas said. “We have many plans to make. I’ll call the architect and have him start straightaway on redoing the west wing for you and the baby.”
“And I know just the pediatrician for you,” Sheila put in. “He’s the best in Dublin.” She was practically clapping her hands. “A baby,” she marveled. “I can’t take it all in.”
Alanna should have expected this. She must have been mad to have been gobsmacked by their plans. For just a moment she allowed herself to think of how wonderful it would be to let someone else worry about her life, but she gave a slow shake of her head. “I have a concert schedule to keep. I must go back to America after Liam’s funeral. Most of the upcoming concerts are sold out, and if we cancel now, this chance might never come again. I will come back when the tour is done.”
The lines on Thomas’s brow deepened. “But of course you’ll stop that music madness. It’s no life for a child. Being hauled from pillar to post on a bus. A child needs stability, a normal home. A chance to go to church.”
Alanna hadn’t thought beyond getting through her grief while fulfilling her contracts and having the baby. “We’re on the cusp of making a name for ourselves.” She shook her head. “Our manager thinks we will be bigger than Celtic Woman someday. I have a responsibility to my mates to see it through. And not only that, it’s my dream and Liam’s too. I can’t throw it all away when it’s nearly in my hands.”
“I forbid it!” Thomas thundered. “You cannot subject my grandchild to such lowlifes.”
“I’m sorry if I sound disrespectful, Thomas. I don’t mean it in that manner. But I’m nearly thirty years old. I’ll make the decisions for my own child. I am his mother.”
The burn of tears was in her eyes. She hadn’t wanted it to go this way. In her imagination, she’d dreamed Thomas would promise to throw his influence behind bookings here in Ireland. He would offer her the little gardener’s cottage at the back of the estate for when they were off the road. Such a foolish daydream.
Sheila gasped and Thomas said nothing for a long moment. Alanna prayed he saw the futility of his orders. They might yet have a decent relationship. When she saw his brows gather again, she knew he wasn’t giving up so easily.
“Then you leave me no choice,” he said heavily. “I wouldn’t want to take the child from you, but I will if I have to. As the mother, you should be the first to recognize that.”
Alanna rose and grabbed her purse. “You can’t take my baby from me.” The Irish law was very clear about who should be raising a child.
“I can do most anything I want,” Thomas said. “All I have to do is make a phone call and report you as unfit. I can have your visa revoked, and you’ll have no choice but to come back to Ireland.”
Alanna’s knees threatened to give way when she realized he meant what he said. And he had the power to carry it through. She had to figure out a way to thwart him before the baby was born.
Four
The eejit!” Ciara fumed as she jerked the car into gear and tromped on the accelerator. “You okay?”
Alanna still felt shaken, too upset to drive. She’d rushed from the house with a strangled promise to think things over. There was nothing to think over, of course, except how to get out of Ireland as quickly as possible to protect her child. But Thomas wouldn’t let an ocean get in his way. She knew him too well. All he had to do was pull the strings to get her visa cancelled, and she’d be back here under his thumb.
“He’ll do what he says,” she said in a trembling voice. “You don’t know him, Ciara. He always gets what he wants. He knows I was raised by the Travellers. The courts will take one look at his lovely mansion and compare it with my circumstances and upbringing. It will be all over. I won’t have the weapons to fight him if he forces me back here.”
She couldn’t let her child have the same upbringing that Liam did. He’d often talked of how differently he would treat his children—with warmth and unconditional love, not chilly perfectionism. If it hadn’t been for Sheila, Alanna would have felt justified in keeping her pregnancy from them.
She saw Ciara bite her lip and knew her mate wanted to offer encouragement, but the reality was Alanna was right. Thomas held all the advantages. “I’m going to go back to America right away. Barry is connected. Maybe he will have a suggestion.”
“I hope you’re right.” For once Ciara’s tone didn’t indicate disdain. “Barry’s an attorney. He might be knowing some tricks to foil Thomas.”