de glowed orange, and Stef

ded to oversee the f

idn't rush to get up, sitting blankly on the bed, lost in

as gravely ill, confined to a hospital

unger woman. He adored my youthful b

he had taken me as his mistr

is schemes, we might hav

his fortune. He sensed my a

bed but dr

osis-late-stage. He starte

s prolonging his life, h

no chi

eyed Albin's shares hungrily. Without a child, I feared that after Albin's

red, Albin nat

er his death; he simply refused to let t

d" for a child, Albin started searchin

runken stupor, forced himself on a young housemaid. Gu

maid became pregnant a

d, her frail health led to two miscar

mentioned children again. After her d

er deathbed, she wrote to Albin, revealing the tru

in recent years, Albin bega

only after Stefan

to discreetly find the perfect cand

ng, healthy m

o met my stand

soon-to-graduate college student-ful

, well-built; I wasn'

ation; I wanted my ch

mo

t the investigator pat

investigator was thorough. Withi

or at Alcrest University. An orphan, handsome, with excellen

fate's gifts always cam

Alcrest Un

Stefan at the

ges. The soft evening light bathed half his face, and his

s, laughing with classma

fan, I made up my mi

rsuing a man was like a siege-lay bait, draw

, it was over. No

flowers, and subtly seduced him, waiti

him step into the trap I'd carefully s

fan stayed on campus,

we spent days tangled in e

, and I got what I wa

lines on the pregnancy test,

or a few days. I packed my things, blocked a

ring the end

re for the baby, occasionally

in to keep such a ti

r that he had found h

o formally acknowledge the child, wh

as likely in

could

had already met Albin in the hos

young Mrs. Powe

umors

n't tolerate the

married Albin onl

irled with wi

for my absenc

my husband nor my newfo

vanity, would have attended such an event,

me the laughingstock of Jasperw