Because of Matthew

Chapter Four

Spencer stared at the boy in front of him. He was a beautiful child. "Hello, Matthew. I'm Spencer."

Alyssa went down to her son's level. "Matthew, remember mommy told you about a friend. Well, this is him."

She looked to Spencer, and he nodded. He was going with it for awhile. He didn't want to scare the boy away.

Little Matthew shook his head. "No mommy friend. Matt's daddy."

Alyssa stared at her son. What did he just say? He has never even met Spencer. How could he possibly know that's his father?

"Matthew, honey. Did you call him daddy?"

Matthew nodded. "My daddy."

Alyssa was surprised. She went down to Matthew's level and said, "Matthew, how do you know him?" She turned to stare at Spencer. He just shook his head.

Matthew smiled. "Picture."

A picture? What picture? "What picture honey? Who showed you a picture? Tell mommy, please. You are not in trouble."

Matthew stood there for a moment. "Molly."

Molly? How did Molly know? "Did Molly give you a picture?"

Matthew nodded.

Spencer turned to Alyssa. "Who is Molly?"

"Molly is my best friend. What I don't understand is how she knew you."

"I do." Spencer sighed. "Molly is Sarah's step sister. Sarah is his..." He stopped. He couldn't say mom in front of Matthew.

Alyssa gasped. "And she never told me this! I can't believe she has kept this from me!"

"Hey," Spencer said when he saw her expression. "If it helps, I never knew about him. Even if she did know about me, she never told me the truth. I never knew Sarah was dead."

"You never knew? You never knew about him? I thought he was abandoned by you too. I thought both of his parents were out of the picture."

Spencer just shook his head. "I didn't know. I came back looking for Sarah, and her best friend told me about her and Matthew."

Alyssa nodded. "You are here to take him now aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Spencer would never take the child from his home. He just wanted to know him.

"I was close to adopting him completely. But, you are here now. I can't do that."

"Alyssa, I'm not going to take him. I just want to get to know him."

Alyssa sighed. Good. Matthew was going nowhere. "So, how are we going to work this out? He is not legally my child, so we can do a court thing. You would automatically win."

Spencer nodded. He knew that would happen. "I know. I don't want that for you. You would never be able to see him."

"If we can't do court, what are we going to do? We both want this child. I have had him since he was two weeks old."

Wow. He hadn't realized how long she had him. "Well, there is one thing that we could do. That way it would be legal for both of us to have him all the time."

Alyssa stared. What was he talking about? "What exactly do you have in mind, Spencer."

"We could get married."