Chương 6
Mia stood.
Claire stood too.
“No, sit. I can pick up a baby.”
“He needs feeding.”
“Right. The one task society has not yet allowed me to outsource.”
Claire carried Noah to the sofa.
As she settled him against her, she thought about Ethan holding the receiving blanket against the car window in the rain.
The memory came back again.
Not because it proved anything.
That was the problem.
Marriage was full of evidence that did not settle the case.
At one-thirty, Ethan emailed her a folder.
Subject: Everything.
Claire almost deleted it.
Instead she opened it.
Inside were the complete email threads with Vanessa, the screenshots, the laboratory invoice, a calendar entry, and a photograph Ethan had taken of the February report.
There was also a document he had written that morning.
Timeline.
Claire rolled her eyes before opening it.
Of course he had made a timeline.
January 24: Vanessa sent screenshots.
January 25: Ethan asked Claire indirectly whether she had heard from Daniel recently.
Claire remembered.
They had been in bed.
Ethan had asked, “Whatever happened to Daniel?”
Claire had said, “Which Daniel?”
Then she had remembered and told him Daniel moved to Denver after his divorce.
She had fallen asleep ten minutes later.
Ethan had apparently remained awake.
January 28: Ethan spoke with Vanessa about prenatal testing.
February 2: Ethan submitted cheek swab at Meridian’s Midtown collection office.
February 5: Claire’s scheduled home blood draw.
February 11: Vanessa delivered report to Ethan.
February 12: Ethan contacted separate laboratory about retesting. They declined to validate or use Meridian samples.
February 14: Ethan met Vanessa. Vanessa advised waiting until birth.
Claire stopped.
Valentine’s Day.
She and Ethan had dinner that evening at home because Claire had been too nauseated to go out.
He had brought flowers.
She had given him a small book about modern architecture he had mentioned months earlier.
He had rubbed her feet while they watched a terrible movie.
All night he had known about the report.
Claire closed the file.
She opened it again ten minutes later.
March 3: Ethan contacted private investigator to assess screenshots.
Claire sat forward.
March 8: investigator reported image inconsistencies but could not establish source without original files.
March 10: Ethan confronted Vanessa regarding screenshots. Vanessa said sender refused further contact.
April 1: Ethan scheduled post-birth test through independent facility, later canceled after Claire experienced preterm contractions and physician recommended reducing nonessential stress and travel.
June 30: Claire admitted for monitoring.
July 5: Noah born.
July 19: Ethan requested information on postnatal test.
August 15: Ethan booked appointment for August 20.
Claire stared at the last line.
Three days from now.
He had already planned to test Noah.
She checked the attachment.
There it was.
An appointment confirmation from an independent lab.
Ethan had not told her.
Again.
She called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Hi.”
“Don’t say hi.”
“Okay.”
“You were going to test him Thursday.”
“Yes.”
“Without me.”
“No.”
Claire gripped the phone.
“How exactly were you planning to include me in a paternity test I didn’t know existed?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“Before Thursday.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know.”
“No.”
She heard a door close on his end.
He was probably in the hotel room.
“Why didn’t you just tell me after he was born?”
“I kept thinking there would be a better moment.”
Claire laughed without humor.
“What does that moment look like?”
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
Silence.
Ethan breathed out.
“You’re holding our newborn, and I say I need to confess that I secretly tested you during pregnancy because my ex-girlfriend showed me screenshots suggesting you cheated, and the result said the baby wasn’t mine.”
“Yes. That sounds terrible.”
“It is terrible.”
“So you decided silence improved it?”
“No. I was afraid.”
Claire leaned against the kitchen counter.
There it was.
Not a justification.
Not a legal explanation.
Fear.
She waited.
Ethan said, “My father found out my brother wasn’t his when my brother was fourteen.”
Claire knew that.
Everyone in Ethan’s family knew it.
His parents’ divorce had been vicious and public inside their small social world. Ethan had been seventeen. His younger brother had been dragged through years of adult rage over something he had not done.
Claire had never understood how deeply that story lived in Ethan because he rarely discussed it.
“I saw those screenshots,” he continued, “and I knew they looked wrong. I knew you didn’t sound like that. But there was this part of me that—”
He stopped.
“What?”
“That thought I was being stupid because my father had been stupid.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“He wasn’t stupid.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. You just called trusting his wife stupid.”
Silence.
“You’re right.”
Claire rubbed her forehead.
“I hate that you can say that so calmly.”
“I don’t feel calm.”
“You sound calm.”
“I’m trying not to make this about how bad I feel.”
That silenced her.
It was the correct answer, which irritated her more.
“Did Vanessa know about your father?”
“Yes.”
“Of course she did.”
“We were together then.”
Claire looked through the windows at the gray afternoon.
“How long were you together?”
“Almost two years.”
“Why did you tell me it was brief?”
“I said it was a long time ago.”
“You said you dated for a while.”
“That’s true.”
“That is what people say about someone they saw for six weeks.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
Claire let the quiet remain.
Ethan said, “I minimized it.”
“Why?”
“Because you didn’t like her.”
“I didn’t like her because every time she came over she rearranged something in my kitchen.”
A surprised sound escaped him.
Almost a laugh.
Claire felt anger rise.
“Do not laugh.”
“I’m sorry.”
“She moved my olive oil, Ethan.”
“I remember.”
“Who does that?”
“I don’t know.”
“She said the light was bad for it.”
“She was right about that.”
May you like
Claire stared at the phone.
Ethan said, “That was a mistake.”
