COUNTERPOINT
An original romantic serialFrom Alina Adams the author of "When a Man Loves a Woman" (DELL 4/00), "Annie's Wild Ride" (AVON 8/98), "Inside Figure Skating" (METROBOOKS 11/00 & 9/99), "Thieves at Heart" (AVON 12/95) and "The Fictitious Marquis" (AVON 6/95)
Available weekly by e-mail from http://www.AlinaAdams.com
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CHAPTER 46
"Uhm... Your Cooper-ness," Gabriel raised his hand like a schoolboy. "I'm Victoria's brother, remember? Not yours." But, even Gabriel could remain flip for just so long. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Victoria watched Robin's face. In the space of a second, it had gone from anger, to vengeance, to shock, to guilt, before settling on an expression she could only read as defiance.
"It's true," he told Gabriel. "Douglas told me as soon as he got it confirmed."
"Told you what?" Gabriel was calm. Too calm.
"That you're Sean."
"And he would be?"
Some of Robin's defiance was slipping. The guilt was coming back, accompanied by what seemed to be regret and genuine sadness. But, to his credit, he bravely plugged on with what he'd started.
"About five years before my parents had me, they had another son. Sean Cooper. Named after Douglas' grandfather. That's how the Coopers do it. The oldest son is named after his paternal grandfather. I'm not. I'm named after my mother's father."
"Fascinating," Gabriel said. "And yet, I could have sworn we were talking about me for a change."
Robin swallowed hard, forcing himself to go on. "Sean was kidnapped when he was about three months old. Right out of his bedroom. They looked for him and looked for him, but, in the end, they decided he had to be dead. A year ago, this old guy was in jail for something, and it carried the death penalty. He had his lawyer contact Douglas. Told him he had some information to trade for taking the death penalty off the table. He said he and his partner kidnapped Sean Cooper. They were going to take him to Mexico and ask for ransom from there, but, in Texas, they held up a liquor-store and the cops were after them, and they figured it was too risky to get caught with a kidnapped kid, so they dumped him. In a garbage can. The guy gave Douglas the date and the place, and Douglas had his investigators check it out. They found you, and they matched Sean Cooper's footprint against the one on file for you with the state. And that's how he found you."
Nobody moved. The story was too fantastic. And yet, it explained everything.
Gabriel asked, "If your father's investigators are so great, how come they couldn't find Sean thirty-three years ago? Haven't these crack investigators ever heard of a manhunt?"
"Douglas looked into that. Apparently, they had an APB out for a three month old boy with curly blond hair. But the guys who kidnapped you, they shaved your head, and I guess they didn't feed you or anything, because you weighed like ten pounds less by the time they found you and they actually though you were younger, like a month old or something. So the stats didn't match."
"Oh, great. Did you hear that Vicky? I'm not only the long lost heir to the Cooper fortune, I'm also older than I thought I was."
"Gabriel...."
If she was in shock, Victoria could only imagine what was going through Gabriel's mind.
No, scratch that. She couldn't imagine it at all.
"Well, this is fascinating," Gabriel hopped off the dresser. "And rather Dickens-esque, wouldn't you say? I'm sorry to break up the family reunion, but, I've gotta run. I have patients to see."
"Gabriel, please -- "
"Lay off of me, Vicky!" It was the first time she could recall him rasing his voice to her. He glared from Robin to Victoria, eyes feverish and extra-bright. "Both of you, just stay the hell away from me!"
The first time Douglas Cooper heard his older son's voice, it was over the telephone. After finding out about Sean -- no, Gabriel, he had to remember that the boy's name was Gabriel now, and make sure not to slip -- after finding out about Gabriel, Douglas had researched the boy, found out what his interests and passions were, and then ordered one of his underlings to offer Dr. Gabriel Scott a chance to run his own public clinic in San Francisco. Douglas wanted to get the boy out here, wanted to get a look at him, to get to know him, before -- well, he wasn't sure before what, but, he knew he wanted him here.
Considering Gabriel's background, Douglas had felt sure he would jump at the chance to run his own clinic. When Gabriel turned down the offer, Douglas had gathered his courage, and personally called him to ask why.
His son had been very polite, very respectful, but, also, very firm. He explained he had a sister in Houston, that she was the only family he had, and that he wasn't interested in moving that far away from her, thank you very much for the offer.
As a result, Douglas ended up offering both Gabriel and Victoria San Francisco jobs. And he had been quite happy with Miss Morgan's performance -- even if her relationship with Robin made him very sorry. For her sake.
Of course, that mess visibly paled in comparison to the first time Douglas stood face to face with Dr. Gabriel Scott, the question of, "Is it true?" hovering between them like a cloud of non-dissipating cigarette smoke.
"It's true," Douglas said. He figured he owed it to Sean -- Gabriel -- to be at least as calm, collected, and dignified, as he was.
"I see," Gabriel said. "Thank you."
And walked out the door without another word.