It's so easy for human beings to make a wrong decision, leading to grief for ourselves and sorrow for those who love us. Then often, when things seem darkest, we find the way to happiness has been open before us all the time-if we'd only had the faith and courage to see it. That's how it was the day I learned I was to have a baby.

I'd suspected it, been panicky about it for some time, before I climbed the flight of stairs to Dr. McGee's office and asked to be examined.

I didn't know Dr. McGee . . . had picked him at random.  

"There's no doubt about it, Mrs. Winters," he said cheerfully. "You're pregnant. From your condition and what you've told me, I would say the second month is well advanced. Have your husband come and see me as soon as he's able. We can arrange for regular visits and proper treatment, and we'll be having that baby before you know it."

I left Dr. McGee's, trembling. How happy I'd feel to be having Paul's baby if things were different! But with Paul and me living the way we were-a long shudder ran through me, thinking of Paul.

What would this mean to him? To his plans for going back to college? It would upset them all! Or-would it?

I twisted the wedding ring on my finger-the ring I had no right to be wearing. All my evasions, my telling myself I was really Paul's common-law wife, crumpled now in my need to face the bitter truth.

I had no claim on Paul or his future. Paul had made no commitments, no promises that would have to be broken. He had merely taken me in when I'd had no other place to go. He'd never said he wanted it to be a permanent arrangement.

Soberly, my thoughts went back to those months when Lola Newcome and I had shared an apartment in New York...back to that fateful party on my nineteenth birthday when Paul had bought me-for cash. It was at an auction that'd begun as a joke, but had led to our living together.

Now our baby was on its way-and he had no right to be.

Read The Rest of the Exclusive Romance Story Here