I Know Who Holds Tomorrow by Francis Ray Page A

she’s softening. But who could resist you?” Zachary said.
    She patted his cheeks as if in perfect agreement.
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    In her bedroom Madison quickly dressed in a pair of black linen slacks and a magenta knit top. She took only a moment to pull a comb through the tangles in her shoulder-length black hair, then she was out the door. They were leaving. Nothing the surprisingly talkative Zachary could say was going to change her mind.
    She rounded the corner of the den and saw Zachary holding Manda in one arm, pointing to her body parts and naming them. Manda stared up at him with attentive eyes as if she understood every word.
    Madison watched them, her hands stuck in her pockets, and fought to harden her resolve. She wasn’t going to be conned or swayed. Manda was not her responsibility. “Shouldn’t you be getting her back to wherever you got her from?”
    â€œThat would be my house,” he said, setting Manda on the floor.
    Shocked, Madison whipped her hands out of her pockets. “You’re keeping her?”
    â€œUntil other arrangements can be made.” Unzipping the diaper bag, he took a colorful plastic key ring and handed it to the grasping hands of the child, who immediately stuck it into her mouth.
    Madison was already shaking her head at the inference and pointed look. “No. You checked her out of the hospital; she’s your responsibility.”
    â€œActually, I checked her out in your name,” he told her.
    â€œWhat!” She stated at him in utter disbelief.
    Manda started, turning big hazel eyes toward Madison. Madison in turn glared at Zachary. “See what you made me do,” she accused.
    Zachary breathed a little easier. She cared. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t care about frightening Manda. “It’s not my intention to upset you, but I made a promise too.”
    She took two steps toward him. “You knew about this?” Anger shimmered in her voice.

    â€œYou were there when I promised to look after her,” he reminded her, his gaze steady.
    Madison’s tense body relaxed. She didn’t like to think that she had been duped by Zachary as well. “Then you keep her.” She sat in a chair across from him, drawing one bare foot under her.
    Zachary glanced at the toenails painted a light pink, then his gaze tracked upward. Even tired, with lines of strain in her face, dark smudged beneath her eyes, she was a beautiful woman. He didn’t understand how Wes could have been unfaithful, but Zachary had learned at a young age that a marriage license didn’t mean fidelity. And when there were children involved, the fallout was hell.
    He switched his attention to Manda, who had abandoned the keys and crawled to the immense glass-and-wood coffee table, then pulled herself up on wobbly legs to study the multicolored prisms of light reflecting in the crystal decanter and glasses in the rattan tray. Zachary pulled it out of harm’s way, then retook his seat.
    â€œMy lawyer says I wouldn’t stand a chance. Besides …” He eyed Madison wearily, then leaned over and picked up Manda who had begun making her way to an iron bowl of fruit on the table. “You’re not going to like what I’m going to say, but I did it for Manda.”
    â€œWhat did you do?”
    â€œRemember, no shouting?”
    Madison simply stared and waited, knowing she wasn’t going to like what Zachary had to say.
    â€œA lawyer, acting on your behalf, visited Manda’s great-aunt in the nursing home in Amarillo and had her sign papers giving you temporary custody. In view of the circumstance, the lawyer was able to get a judge to quickly grant the request.”
    Madison’s temper spiked, and she held it back with sheer force of will. “You had no right to do that.”
    â€œI apologize, but it was the only thing I could think of at the time.”
    Too angry to sit, she stood, paced, then pinned him with a