Free Just Destiny by Theresa Rizzo Page B

I’ll sue!” he yelled, smacking his palm against the cold pewter doors.
    Judith put a hand on his arm. “George, calm down. The decision’s been made. And I think it’s the right one.”
    “Then you’re an idiot.” He shook loose, giving her a stony glare of betrayal. They were going to carve Gabe up over his dead body. He’d lost enough. Gabe would be buried with the same parts he came into the world with. Mind racing, he struggled to gather his scattered thoughts. It’s clear they wouldn’t listen to him, but they’d have to listen to a judge. “Let go me. I’ve gotta call my attorney.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, you can’t stop it. Gabe believed in organ donation, and as his closest living relative, Jenny’s wishes take precedence.”
    He glared at the bereavement counselor. “Is that true?”
    She nodded. “Yes, but most people—”
    “Stop them.” He hovered over Jenny, crowding her, intimidating. “You can stop it. They’re going to carve him up and hollow him out like a Thanksgiving turkey. How can you let them do that? And you claimed to love him,” he scoffed.
    “I do love him,” Jenny whispered, anger glistened in her tear-drenched eyes.
    “Then stop them.” Tears burned his eyes. He wasn’t too proud to beg. He looked at Jenny, letting her see his gut-wrenching sorrow and desperation. “Stop them. Please.”
    “I can’t.” She held his gaze. “It’s what he wanted.”
    He bent his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Tears eased around his fingers in a steady, uncontrollable flow. There had to be a way. He raised his head to the ceiling, blinked hard and took a deep steadying breath.
    “She’s right,” Judith said.
    “And the baby. Daddy wanted Jenny to have his baby,” Alex said, as if offering hope.
    George froze, then slowly turned around to stare at his great niece.
    Alex’s eyes widened with the sudden realization that she’d told a secret.
    “What baby?”
    Everybody started talking simultaneously, but George waved them aside, zeroing in on his great niece.
    “What baby, Alex?” he asked softly.
    Stuttering, she eased closer to her mother. “I…the one Jenny’s gonna have.”
    His gaze settled on Jenny’s flat waist. “You’re pregnant?”
    Her mouth opened and closed wordlessly. Tears filled her eyes as she shook her head.
    “Gabe and Jenny were trying to get pregnant when this happened,” Judith said. “They’re going to save Gabe’s sperm for her so she can try again to conceive.”
    Save Gabe’s sperm? How would they even get it? More surgery? There? Eyes wide, his neck extended in disbelief. “That’s sick.”
    “It is not,” Judith said.
    “He’s dead.”
    “All the more reason to want his baby. She wants a living part of him. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
    “It’s illegal. Why…it’s rape—that’s what it is. It’s rape. You can’t do that.” He jabbed a finger at them, before gripping his waist with tense fingers that he longed to curl around their collective necks and shake some sense into them. Sick. Crazy. Illegal. It had to be illegal.
    “He’s her husband. It’s hardly rape, George,” Judith maintained.
    “There’s no law specifically forbidding sperm recovery in situations like this,” Amy stated.
    George glared at the five, hardly able to comprehend their madness. His gaze honed in on the counselor as she spouted her ridiculous statement. Apparently he couldn’t stop them from taking Gabe’s organs, but he could handle this little grief mouse. Furious, he turned on her, jabbing the air in front of her. “ You. Stay out of it .”
    He glared a long minute at Judith, then Jenny. “First I find out Gabe’s been injured on the afternoon news; when I get here I find that he’s brain dead and only the machine’s keeping him alive.” He ticked the offenses off on fat, short fingers. “Then I find that you’re about to desecrate his body, and now you think you’re going to steal his sperm and have