Chương 2
“I promise.”
The boys left together, their black shoes making uneven little taps across the marble and then the hardwood beyond the doorway.
Claire waited until they disappeared down the hall.
Then she said, “Please don’t go after Mason.”
Evan looked at her.
It was not the right thing to say.
He watched her realize it.
“I didn’t mean—”
“You’re worried about him?”
“No. Evan, no.”
“Then don’t start with his name.”
“I’m trying to stop this from becoming worse.”
“It became worse six years ago.”
“I didn’t know.”
He looked at the report.
“You knew enough to test them.”
“Two weeks ago.”
“You knew enough six years ago to wonder.”
She pressed her palm against the center of her stomach as though the jeweled gown had suddenly become too tight.
“Yes.”
The answer changed something in him because it was not denial.
He had expected denial. A mistake. A fraudulent report. A panicked explanation involving mistaken samples or a laboratory error. Anything that would give him five more minutes inside the life he had occupied when he walked into that bathroom.
Claire looked at the marble floor.
“It happened when we were apart.”
Evan’s jaw tightened.
“Do not do that.”
“I’m not making an excuse.”
“You’re already making one.”
“We were apart, Evan.”
“With my brother.”
Her eyes lifted.
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
She didn’t answer quickly enough.
He looked away.
The silver-framed mirror held both of them now: Evan in white, Claire in ivory, dressed for vows neither of them would say. Behind them, the glass shower looked almost blue in the cool light. Someone had placed a small arrangement of white roses near the sink that morning.
Evan had complained they were unnecessary.
Claire had laughed and told him rich people needed flowers in bathrooms because otherwise they might remember they were using bathrooms.
He had kissed her shoulder.
That had been less than an hour ago.
“Twice,” she said.
He looked at her reflection.
“Was that supposed to help?”
“No.”
“When did you find out you were pregnant?”
“Four weeks after we got back together.”
“And you knew it could be him.”
“I knew it could be either of you.”
“Did Mason know?”
Claire didn’t answer.
Evan nodded once.
There it was.
The room seemed colder.
“You both knew.”
“We didn’t know they were his.”
“You both knew there was a chance.”
“Yes.”
“And you made sure I never did.”
Her eyes filled, but she did not cry.
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“You.”
The answer stopped him.
Claire’s fingers immediately tightened.
“Not that you would hurt me. That isn’t what I mean.”
“Then choose your next words carefully.”
“I was scared you’d leave.”
He stared at her.
“That was my decision to make.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now because there’s a report sitting on the counter and Noah found it.”
“I knew then too.”
That quiet admission was worse.
A distant burst of laughter floated up from downstairs. Guests. Somebody who had not yet received the news. Somebody standing under flowers, drinking champagne, expecting a ceremony.
Claire flinched.
Evan picked up the report again.
There were four pages. Collection dates. Identification numbers. Signatures.
His eye stopped on one.
Mason Hale.
Signed twelve days earlier.
Mason had not merely known about the test. He had provided a sample.
Evan folded the report once, carefully, because if he didn’t do something with his hands he was going to hit the mirror.
“Where is he?”
“Evan.”
“Where is my brother?”
“Downstairs.”
“Of course he is.”
“He said he was going to tell you.”
Evan’s gaze snapped back to her.
“What?”
“He thought I had already told you.”
“When?”
“Before today.”
“Claire.”
“He told me I had to tell you before the wedding.”
The first crack appeared in her voice.
“I was going to.”
“You were wearing the dress.”
“I know.”
“The guests are downstairs.”
“I know.”
“My sons were dressed.”
“I know.”
“You were going to tell me when?”
She looked at the clutch in her hand.
The answer was sitting inside it before she spoke.
“I brought the report upstairs because I was trying to make myself do it.”
Evan laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You needed paperwork for courage.”
“I’ve been carrying it for twelve days.”
“And still managed to get to the dress.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you not to do something tonight that hurts the boys because you hate me.”
His face changed.
Claire saw it and stepped back.
He spoke so quietly she had to lean forward.
“Do not use them to manage me.”
“I’m not.”
“You have used them to manage me for six years.”
“No.”
“You let me believe something because you were afraid I might leave.”
“I let you be their father because you were their father.”
“Don’t.”
“It’s true.”
“Don’t you dare give me the consolation prize in the same breath as the lie.”
Claire’s shoulders dropped.
For the first time, she looked less like a bride caught in a secret and more like a woman who had finally reached the end of a decision she had been postponing for years.
Evan walked past her.
She turned.
“Where are you going?”
“To find my sons.”
“And Mason?”
“I’ll find him too.”
“Evan.”
He stopped without facing her.
“If you follow me right now, I’m going to say something in front of them that I can’t take back.”
Claire stayed in the bathroom.
Evan went downstairs.
The mansion had never seemed particularly large to him before. His mother had bought it after selling the house where he and Mason grew up, then remodeled half of it into the sort of place wedding magazines requested for photo shoots. White stone. Too much glass. Rooms nobody used unless fifty people needed somewhere to stand with drinks.
That afternoon, nearly a hundred people were doing exactly that.
May you like
They had not all heard yet.
The musicians in the rear courtyard had stopped playing. A cellist sat with her bow across her knees. Two men near the staircase were whispering over their phones. A cousin Evan saw twice a year raised his eyebrows as he passed, then quickly looked somewhere else.
