Chapter 1

Martin phoned his wife and asked her to come to meet him at the office. "Dress nicely, darling, the boss wants to meet you." But he wouldn't tell her anything more. When she arrived she was looking lovely. Her long blonde hair was down around her shoulders, and she was wearing a smart black dress, mid thigh length, fairly low cut neckline, high heels, and shiny stockings or tights that showed her legs off nicely.

Martin smiled approvingly, but she felt he was looking nervous, and assumed that was because he was worried about why the boss suddenly wanted to see her.

"Do you think this is about your pay rise?"

A few weeks ago Linda had persuaded Martin to request a pay increase, he hadn't had one for a long time. "I hope so, but he didn't say anything when he arranged this meeting. Just said he wanted to talk to us both."

"Does he know we want to start IVF?"

Linda was 27, Martin four years older. They had been married for three years but despite trying all that time they still had no children. Tests had finally shown that it was Martin's problem, a low sperm count! Now they were contemplating trying IVF, but it was going to be very expensive!

"No, darling, I haven't told him about that. I'm sure he would say that it's our problem, and not a reason for the company to pay me more. Don't worry, dear, I'm sure we can find the money for the programme."

Linda smiled gratefully. Since she first suggested IVF he had promised that he would find the money for it, and she trusted him. When they first got married she wanted to buy a house, and somehow Martin had managed to raise the deposit, although she hadn't any idea where the money had suddenly come from.

Martin was one of the firm's accountants, sharing an office with other employees in the finance department. Linda had never been to his desk, indeed she had never been inside the building beyond the reception desk before, so she was quite excited when Martin met her there and led her to his desk. Not very prestigious but it was nice knowing where he spent his days. "You arrived a bit early, which was good. And you are looking sensational, I love that dress."

She smiled, noticing that several of his co-workers were looking at her appreciatively. At last it was time to go see the boss, and he led her to the executive elevator, and pressed the button for the top floor of the building. Outside his boss's office, he introduced his wife to Mr Seymour's secretary, Sandra, who smiled politely and said, "He is expecting you, I will tell him you are here."

Mr Seymour's office was huge and expensively furnished. He came out from behind his large wooden desk to greet them, but Linda felt he was quite curt with Martin. However he was nice to Linda, taking her hand and saying, "Hello Mrs Lang."

She of course said, "Please call me Linda, Mr Seymour," expecting him to invite her to use his first name, but he didn't, he just smiled and invited them both to sit down, in two upright chairs facing his desk. He went back around his desk and sat down, then with no more pleasantries he said, "I will get straight to the point. Martin, I suspect you already know why you are here. Linda, I asked to have you present when I put certain things to your husband, because I want to see how much you know about what he has been doing."

Martin groaned, and Linda looked at him in confusion. She realised this was not a social visit at all!

"Martin, I know how you have been taking money from the company over the last few years; how you could afford your big house on the salary I was paying you. Would you like to explain it to your wife?"

"Look, sir, Linda knows nothing about this."

Mr Seymour raised an eyebrow, and smiled, but there was nothing humorous about the look he gave to his employee. "About what, Martin? If you tell me everything, I might be a bit more lenient in deciding what action to take. But if you try to deny it, then I will have the Fraud Squad brought in and you will go to prison."

"NOOOOO," wailed Linda, unable to believe what he had just said.

Martin sat motionless for several minutes while Linda sobbed and Mr Seymour, stony faced, waited for his decision. At last Martin took a deep breath and turned to his wife.

"Darling, we could never have bought the house, and all the nice furniture, on my salary. So not long after we married I started fiddling the books."

He turned to face his boss, almost accusing Mr Seymour as he said, "It was too easy, sir, your checks and auditing systems are pathetic. So, yes, I created a few false accounts and paid invoices submitted from those accounts. I only took enough to cover the deposit on the house, and then some for the furniture we needed, but I could easily have taken much more. Maybe if you had given me the pay rises I kept asking for, I wouldn't have needed to steal anything."

Martin reached over and took his wife's hand in his. "I'm sorry, darling, I just wanted you to be happy." She pressed her free hand to face, but said nothing.

After a few moment's silence, Mr Seymour spoke. "Martin, you are a very good accountant, although not very good at hiding your tracks when you try to steal from me. I've been monitoring what you took for a long time, and long ago I decided that it was better to let you go on taking small amounts rather than give you the equivalent pay rise, which you definitely did deserve. To be honest it amused me. And I knew that if I was keeping tabs on you then I could make sure you never went too far without me knowing."

Martin was shaking as he listened to his boss. Linda was quietly crying, tears running down her face.

"Something changed though. A week ago you transferred a much larger sum of money than before, enough so I can't go on ignoring it. What was that for, Martin?"

Martin's voice quivered as he explained. "We want to start a family, but it seems I can't father a child, I have low sperm count. We enquired about IVF, but it's very expensive."

"Ahhh I see." Mr Seymour sat back and put his hands behind his head and surveyed the unhappy pair in front of him. Nothing was said for some time. After a few minutes Mr Seymour stood up and walked around the room, as though deep in thought.

"Let me be quite clear. When I asked you to come here I intended to listen to Martin's excuses then report him to the authorities. You too, Linda, if I had decided you were involved in the fraud. As well as sending Martin to prison, we would have demanded that you return the money that he stole, including that recent large amount that you say was for the IVF, and what you took several years ago for the house deposit. So as well as losing your husband, Linda, I fear you would have needed to sell the house. Sadly, through no fault of yours, you would have found yourself alone with no husband, no house, and still no baby."

For some time he stood behind them, neither daring to turn around to look at him. Finally Linda spoke. "Sir, please, there must be something we can do to avoid all that."

He stepped close beside Linda and put his hand on her shoulder, and said softly, "Don't cry, Linda, I am sure we can work this out."

She struggled to control her sobs, and twisted in her seat trying to smile a thank you.

Finally Mr Seymour sat down again, but this time leaning forward, his elbows on his desk.

"Maybe there is an alternative. Martin, you need to be punished. I need an incentive for not reporting you. And Linda, you need to be inseminated with good quality sperm."

He sat silently for another lengthy pause to let his words sink in, especially the last sentence. Then Linda asked, "What are you proposing?" Linda's voice was strained; she was gripping Martin's hand tightly, and wiping her face with her free hand.

"Many women use surrogate mothers to rear babies, using their husband's sperm inserted into a fertile woman and taking the baby when it is born. But Linda, we assume you are fertile, we know it's your husband who can't impregnate you. So, Linda, you need to use a surrogate father to get you pregnant. I am offering my services."

From their faces it was clear that both of them understood exactly what he meant. Linda was the first to respond. "You want to give me a baby?"