Free New Beginnings by Helen Cooper

baby more than I love Jacob.” He looked at her with worry in her eyes. “I’m scared it will be evident and Jacob will be scarred for life, knowing that he wasn’t the baby that we wanted, that he wasn’t truly ours. That I never loved his mother.”
    “Oh Max.” Sophie stared at him in wonder. “I had no idea you felt this way.”
    “Maybe I should do a paternity test?” Max looked at Sophie for an answer.
    “Do you know who the other father could be?” She looked at him frowning.
    “Yes.” His voice was firm and he looked away. “Yes I do.”
    “And would he make a good father?” Sophie paused. “And would he want to be in the baby’s life?”
    “No.” Max’s face was hard. “He wouldn’t acknowledge the baby. He’s married, Sophie.”
    “Oh.”
    “And he’s an important figure. It would lead to a lot of trouble. I can’t say much more now.” He frowned. “It’s complicated and I don’t want you involved.”
    “Don’t do a paternity test.” Sophie grabbed his hand. “A baby doesn’t need all this strife. He’ll never grow up happy in those circumstances. We will make good parents, Max.”
    “Can you love him, Sophie?”
    “Yes.” Sophie thought about Jacobs’s innocent face. “Yes, I can love him.” She bit her lip and started playing with her hair and looked out of the window. “I never told anyone this before but my uncle, the one that raised me, he dated my mother before she married my dad. And he really, really loved her. But then she met his brother, my dad, and they fell head over heels in love. And my mom ditched my uncle and married my dad. It was years before my uncle finally married his best friend, my aunt, and they say that he never really got over my mom. When she died, they say he was devastated.”
    “Oh your poor aunt.” Max looked at her in sympathy.
    “Yes, it’s quite sad.” She looked at him sorrowfully. “But my aunt never loved me less. She never looked at me with distaste or hurt or even hate. She loved me with all of her heart and while I was lonely I never doubted her love for me. I want to be that person for Jacob. No child deserves to feel like he wasn’t wanted or good enough. It’s not his fault that his parents made poor decisions.”
    “And that is why I love you, Sophie.” He brought her towards him and they hugged awkwardly through the seatbelts. “Your heart is so huge.”
    “Remember that, Max.” She grinned. “Now let’s go to the sex club.”
    “Ha.” Max peered at her. “You look like you’re excited?”
    She grinned at him and licked her lips.
    “Oh my god, you’re excited to visit the sex club,” Max exclaimed. “Just what do you think is going to happen?”
    “I don’t know, but I don’t have on any underwear.” She raised an eyebrow and he fanned his face.
    “Sophie, you are trying to make me a bad man, aren’t you?” He grinned and started the car. “Then let’s go.”
    “So where are we going?” She looked around her curiously.
    “We’re going to Jersey to a secret club called ‘The Games’.”
    “The Games?” She laughed. “Original.”
    “It’s a starter club,” he explained. “If you like it, we can go to a better one.”
    “Seedier one?”
    “No.” He grinned. “I can tell you know nothing about the lifestyle, seedy is what you see on TV.”
    “So these clubs aren’t seedy?”
    “No.” He looked at her with a smile. “The clientele may be seedy but the actual club isn’t. We’re not going to some dive bar in a bad neighborhood.”
    “Okay.” Sophie sat back and studied Max as he drove. He seemed very controlled for some reason. She could tell he was tense and she wasn’t sure why. He had seemed excited to find out that she was excited but something in his reaction had made her worry. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Maybe it was because he was excited himself. She wasn’t sure what that meant. Did he miss going to the clubs? Was this something he needed in