Chương 7
Claire nodded.
“I told her.”
“Why the wedding?”
Elena looked tired.
“I made the mistake of saying I would contact Ethan’s attorney Monday. Mia heard me on the phone with my sister talking about his wedding. She thought Monday meant never.”
“She just ran inside?”
“I was arguing with an usher who thought I was trying to get into a private ceremony. She slipped through the flower-delivery entrance.”
Elena shook her head.
“I’ve replayed those thirty seconds about a thousand times.”
Claire looked down.
“So have I.”
Elena studied her.
“You hurt her.”
“I know.”
“I’m not telling you so you can feel bad.”
“Okay.”
“I’m telling you because feeling bad is cheap.”
Claire looked at her.
“What isn’t?”
“Doing different.”
The paternity result came Monday afternoon.
Ethan was Mia’s biological father.
Claire learned from Ethan himself.
He called once.
She almost let it go to voicemail.
Then answered.
“Hi.”
For several seconds there was only his breathing.
“It’s positive.”
Claire sat down on the stairs.
She had known.
Or thought she had.
Knowing became different when someone said it aloud.
“How certain?”
“The lab says the probability is greater than ninety-nine percent.”
He sounded mechanical.
Claire let the number pass between them.
“How are you?”
He laughed once.
“I have an eight-year-old daughter.”
“Yes.”
“I missed everything.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“That isn’t the part you should say to Mia first.”
“I know.”
“You say that a lot.”
“I know.”
Despite herself, Claire smiled.
Then neither spoke.
Finally Ethan said, “My father knew.”
Claire’s smile disappeared.
“Margaret told me.”
“He admitted it.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Claire waited.
“I asked him exactly what happened. He got the letter. He saw the birth certificate. He saw the baby picture. He told Margaret to file the correspondence with legal.”
“Did he destroy it?”
“No. That would almost be easier.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s in the company archive.”
Claire stood.
“He kept it?”
“Apparently.”
“Why?”
“Because people like my father don’t throw away anything that might become evidence.”
There was bitterness in Ethan’s voice Claire had never heard before.
“He said he meant to tell me when I was more established.”
Claire laughed.
“Eight years is a long establishment period.”
“He says after a while it seemed pointless.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“What are you saying was pointless?”
Silence.
Then Ethan said, “Nothing.”
Claire waited.
“I’m meeting Mia Wednesday.”
“She agreed?”
“Elena said twenty minutes. At her lawyer’s office.”
“Good.”
“I’m terrified.”
Claire leaned against the stair railing.
There were a hundred responses available.
Some cruel.
Some kind.
None felt right.
“She likes grape soda,” Claire said.
“What?”
“I don’t know why I know that. She had one Saturday.”
A quiet breath.
“Thank you.”
“And she’ll know if you’re pretending.”
“Also helpful.”
“Ethan.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t tell her you would have come if you’d known.”
He went silent.
Claire continued.
“You did know enough to come looking.”
The silence grew heavier.
“I know,” he said.
This time she let him.
Mia made Ethan wait fourteen minutes before entering the conference room.
He had arrived twenty minutes early.
Elena told Claire this later, though Claire suspected she was meant to hear it.
Mia sat across from Ethan with her repaired olive backpack beside her chair.
She did not call him Dad.
She did not hug him.
She asked three questions.
Did you love my mom?
Why didn’t you come?
Are you going to leave now?
Ethan answered the first with yes.
The second took longer.
He told her that he had been scared and selfish and had accepted an answer that made his life easier.
He did not mention Richard until Mia asked whether her grandfather knew.
That word nearly broke him.
Grandfather.
He said yes.
Mia asked if Richard wanted her.
Ethan said Richard did not get to decide anything about her anymore.
It was the first answer she liked.
For the third question, Ethan said, “I’m going to keep asking to see you. Your grandma decides when, and you get a say too. If you tell me to go home, I’ll go home. But I won’t disappear.”
Mia looked at him.
“Mom said people say forever when they mean until it’s inconvenient.”
Ethan swallowed.
“Then I won’t say forever.”
“What will you say?”
“I’ll say Saturday.”
“What’s Saturday?”
“The next day I’m asking if I can see you.”
According to Elena, Mia thought about that for a long time.
Then she said, “Okay.”
Claire heard the story while sitting in Elena’s kitchen three days later, waiting for Mia to finish homework.
She had begun stopping by because she still felt responsible for the damaged backpack.
Then because Mia had asked for help with a school presentation.
Then because Elena made too much soup.
Claire understood how ridiculous the progression sounded.
She did not examine it too closely.
Her own life remained less orderly.
The museum foundation where Claire worked in donor relations asked her to take two weeks of paid leave after donors began forwarding the wedding video to the executive director.
The request was polite.
That made it worse.
Claire agreed.
A crisis consultant recommended a statement emphasizing the emotional circumstances and unauthorized intrusion into a private event.
Claire fired him after twelve minutes.
Jess said twelve minutes was a personal record.
Claire eventually released four sentences.
She apologized for kicking Mia’s backpack.
She called her behavior unacceptable.
She asked the public not to identify or harass a child.
She offered no explanation for Ethan, Nora, or the canceled wedding.
The statement did not save her reputation.
Some people believed it.
Some did not.
One woman mailed Claire an envelope containing a photograph of a garbage can with BRIDE written on it.
Her mother found this hysterical.
Claire did not.
Then, two days later, she did.
Richard Hale’s response was different.
Through counsel, Hale Development stated that private family matters involving a minor would not be discussed publicly.
May you like
That was sensible.
Behind closed doors, Richard tried to convince Elena to accept a financial trust in exchange for keeping future paternity proceedings sealed.
