Tara Taylor Quinn - Father Unknown.pdf

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Father: Unknown
by
Tara Taylor Quinn
FATHER:
UNKNOWN
Tara Taylor Quinn
TORONTO. NEW YORK LONDON
AMSTERDAM PARIS SYDNEY HAMBURG
STOCKHOLM ATHENS TOKYO MILAN
MADRID.-WARSAW o BUDAPEST AUCKLAND qa
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It
was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has
received any payment for this "stripped book."
ISBN 0-373-70784-3
FATHER: UNKNOWN
Copyright 1998 by Tara Lee Reames.
All rights reserved. Excel for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole
or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin
Enterprises Umited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mil, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no
relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inoired
by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with are registered in the Unted States
Patent and Trademark Office. the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Printed in U.S.A.
For Scott and Carleen Gumser. July 1, 1997. I was furiously typing the last pages of this book,
thinking of a cruise ship in the Virgin Islands, waiting for the phone to ring so I would know "you
did." I slept well that night!
For Chum. I hope there are many more memories waiting to be found, and that they're easier ones.
And for Kevin. You are my magic.
CHAPTER ONE
"YOUR NAME IS ANNA."
Anna. She wasn't sure she liked the name. C tainly didn't feel any affinity to it, any sense of o ership.
Her heart started to pound.
"No one seems to know who you are," the doc said almost conversationally. "You didn't have on you
when they brought you in, just a 1oc around your neck engraved with that name. We w hoping you
could tell us more."
Terror threatening to consume her, she shook head. "Where am I?" Even her voice was un fan jar,
husky.
She tried not to flinch as he lifted her eyelids a shone his light into her eyes "You're on the fil floor of
Madison General Hospital in New Y
City. I'm Dr. Gordon, a neumlogist and your tending physician." The tall, thin white-coated m spoke
as if reassuring a child.
New York.
"What day is it?"
"Tuesday. The first of July."
'uly. Summer.
"How long have I been here?"
"Since late yesterday afternoon."
She digested that piece of information slowly, but the cotton wool surrounding her mind remained
alarmingly intact. Time meant nothing to her, either, it seemed. "What's wrong with me? Why don't I
remember anything?" she cried.
"You took quite a bump on the head, and though the tests show no real damage, temporary memory
loss isn't that unusual in this type of situation. if you'll just relax, things will probably start coming
back to you almost immediately. In a few days you should be just fine," the doctor said with a smile,
although he was watching her intently. "The baby doesn't seem to have suffered at all."
"Baby?" she. whispered What baby? Where?
She looked around her at the sterile empty room. "I have a baby?"
"You're eight weeks pregnant, Anna," he said, feeling her pulse.
His watchful eyes continued to study her. Anna. Pregnant. Pregnant Anna
"None of this sounds familiar?" the doctor asked kindly.
She shook her head, and her fear increased when she saw the disappointment cross his face. Both he
and the nurse who'd been in her room when she awoke had been kind to her. She clung to that
kindness as Dr. Gordon's words failed to jar any memory from her at all.
"Well, just to be certain that there wasn't more damage than at first appeared, I'm going to write an
order for more tests this afternoon.
But don't worry,
Anna, traumatic memory loss isn't uncommon.
Chances are your memory will return shortly." And what if it doesn't?
Dr. Gordon continued to explain her condition, speaking of a subway crash she had no recollection
of, the trauma to her brain, the news bulletins being issued statewide in an attempt to reach anyone
who knew her. But his words were like background noise, an irritation, nearly drowned out by the
voice in her head aimlessly repeating the only words that meant anything to her--and yet meant,
frighteningly nothing at all. Atma Pregnant.
She didn't feel like an Anna. She ran her hand along the flatness of her belly beneath the stark white
hospital sheet. And she certainly didn't feel pregnant.
A baby. Surely the doctor was wrong. She'd remember something as important as a baby growing
inside of her. She'd remember the man who'd helped put it there. Wouldn't she? Her chest constricted
making it difficult to breathe.
"Am I crazy, Doctor?"
"No! Of course not." He patted her foot beneath the covers. "The mind has its own ways of dealing
with shock. Yours is merely doing its job, protecting you to get you through a hellish ordeal. You
were one of the lucky ones, coming out of the crash virtually unscathed."
Anna nodded.
"Do you have any more questions?"
Of course she did. A million of them. But only one that mattered. And apparently one he couldn't
answer. Who am I?
She shook her head again, harder. And then wished she hadn't as a wave of dizziness washed over
her. She did have another question. What's going to happen to me? But she didn't ask it. She couldn't.
Not yet.

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