Free New Beginnings by LaShawn Vasser Page A

otherwise Angel won’t…survive.  I need your help to make that happen.”
    Alicia closed her eyes.  She knew that one day Ryan would slip up and make a mess of things.  She hoped today was not that day.  “I’m sorry Ms. Martin.  I just don’t believe I can’t help you.  Do you know how many women have called me with some crazy story about my husband?  You are not the first and probably won’t be the last.  I hope things work out for you and your daughter but I can’t help you.  Good bye Ms…”  Alicia was about to hang up the phone.
    “No don’t hang up!  Look, I don’t want to have to do this but Ryan Carter needs to be here for his daughter.  We are at First Methodist Hospital in Atlanta.  If Ryan is not here in the next 3 hours I will be forced to go to the papers with this story.”
    Alicia hissed at Vicky “You little B itch!  We have friends at all of the Minnesota papers.  Nobody will print an unsubstantiated story about the future governor of Minnesota!”
    “ Look, I don’t want to bring this type of attention to myself or my daughter.  But, she is fighting for her life and I will if I must!  I’ll do anything and talk to anyone to save her life.  I have the full support of my fiancé, Jason Rutherford and his family John and Miriam Rutherford.”
    Alicia paused for a moment.  She was very familiar with the Rutherford’s.  Especially Jason Rutherford.  He was engaged to Bridget Reed, an old acquaintance from the Brookings Board.  The Rutherford’s held a lot of clout in Minnesota.
    Alicia decided to tread very carefully, “Now I know you are lying.  Jason is engaged to a very close friend of mine.”
    “No, Jason is standing right next to me.  Would you like to speak to him?”
    Alicia was going to call her on her bluff “Yes, I would as a matter of fact.”
    “Very well” Vicky handed the phone over to Jason.
    “Alicia, this is Jason Rutherford.  I can understand how this may be a shock for you a nd pretty difficult to digest but time is not on our side.  Everything that Vicky has told you is the truth.  We need your help.  No one wished things were different more than we do but Ryan is Angel’s biological father.  Without his help we are going to lose our little girl.  I will not stand by and watch that happen.  So, right now I’m pleading but, if Ryan isn’t here within the next 3 hours, our family, and that includes my fiancé, Ms. Martin, as well as MY family will be calling a press conference.”
    “Jason, this is so low .  How could you do this?  It’s obvious this woman is a gold-digging, social climbing leech.  If she isn’t lying, you do realize she most likely tricked Ryan and now she has somehow convinced you to marry her! Are you kidding me?  What is wrong with you men that you’d allow what’s between a woman’s legs to destroy you?”
    Alicia closed her eyes and frantically rubbed her forehead.  She knew that if this Martin girl had convinced Jason Rutherford that the little girl was Ryan’s, then whether the child was his or not Ms. Martin might be a convincing figure to the public.  “Let’s just say I believe what you’re telling me for argument sake, I don’t even know where to find Ryan.  He took the plane early this afternoon for a business trip.”
    “We all know it’s your plane, get the information from the person who filed the flight route, find him and get him here.   Three hours Alicia.  That’s it and that’s all.”  Jason hung up the phone and set his alarm on his watch for 6 o’clock pm.
    “Well, part one is done and now it’s time to go and prepare for part two.  I need to go and talk to my parents.  They’ll need to be brought up to speed and then I’ll need to get everything set-up for the press conference.”
    “ Shouldn’t we wait before we set-up a press conference? Do you not think that she’ll be able to convince Ryan to do the right thing?”
    “No, I’m pretty sure she’ll get him