Chương 4
Ethan opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
Maya’s voice dropped.
“I had one night with Ryan.”
Ethan looked toward Sophie.
Maya followed his gaze.
“You and I were separated.”
“I know when it happened.”
“You said you never wanted to hear details.”
“I still don’t.”
“Then stop making me sound like I was running a second life.”
He clenched his jaw.
She had a right to that.
He hated that she had a right to that.
Six years earlier, Ethan had broken up with Maya after a stupid, prolonged fight about marriage, money and whether he actually wanted a family or simply liked the idea of one. He had been proud, scared and convinced that wanting time made him rational.
They spent seven weeks apart.
During those seven weeks, Maya slept with Ryan once.
She had told Ethan that part five days ago.
The rest had come in pieces.
The paternity test.
Ryan’s knowledge.
The secrecy.
The money Maya had refused.
Ethan had spent five days becoming a man he did not particularly like.
He checked old calendars.
He reread messages from 2019.
He searched bank statements that proved nothing.
He stared at childhood photographs of himself and Ryan as if facial geometry could retroactively reorganize a family.
Once, at three in the morning, he opened Sophie’s bedroom door and stood watching her sleep until Maya found him there.
Neither of them spoke.
Now Maya sat again.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“When?”
“When I found out.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“And every day after that?”
She flinched.
He immediately wished he could take the sentence back.
Not because it was false.
Because it was too true to be useful.
Someone knocked softly.
Officer Martinez leaned inside.
“Do you need more time?”
Ethan looked at Maya.
She shook her head.
Martinez returned.
She sat.
“Ms. Bennett, I need to ask you something about Vanessa Price.”
Maya nodded.
“Had you met her before tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Did she recognize you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you speak before the incident?”
Maya stared at her hands.
“She came to our table after dinner.”
“What did she say?”
“She said Ryan wanted to speak with me privately.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You didn’t tell me that.”
“You were talking to your dad.”
“You went?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Maya’s eyes flashed.
“Because Ryan had been texting me for three days saying he wanted to solve this before the wedding.”
“What does solve mean?”
“He offered to make a formal financial arrangement for Sophie.”
Ethan stared.
“He offered what?”
“I said no.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“You had just found out she wasn’t biologically yours.”
“I found out because his name appeared in your old email.”
“I know.”
“You knew I was trying to understand why my brother’s attorney had sent you genetic test results six years ago.”
“I know.”
“And while I was doing that, Ryan was texting you?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stood so abruptly the chair legs scraped.
Sophie stirred.
He froze.
When she settled, he lowered himself again.
Martinez kept her voice neutral.
“What happened after Vanessa took you to speak with Ryan?”
Maya looked toward the door.
“He was behind the catering tent.”
“Alone?”
“At first.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked whether Ethan knew.”
“And?”
“I said yes.”
“His reaction?”
“He looked sick.”
Ethan almost interrupted.
Martinez raised one hand slightly.
“What happened next?”
“He said we couldn’t stay.”
“Why?”
“He said Sophie looked too much like him now. He said Claire’s father had already asked who she was.”
Ethan remembered.
Charles Whitmore had come by their table before dinner, smiling, making the kind of harmless conversation rich men made when they could not remember whether they had met someone before.
And Sophie had been wearing a yellow cardigan then.
Dry.
Safe.
She had complained that the flower-shaped butter at the table tasted exactly like normal butter.
Ethan had told her that was because it was normal butter.
She had looked disappointed.
“When Ryan told you to leave, what did you say?”
“I said no.”
A faint smile appeared on Ethan’s face before he could stop it.
Maya saw.
“So then?”
“He said he could have a car brought around.”
“I said I came with Ethan and Sophie and I wasn’t sneaking out of his wedding like I’d stolen something.”
Martinez wrote something down.
“Did Ryan threaten you?”
“No.”
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“Did he instruct Ms. Price to remove you?”
Maya hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Exact words, if you remember.”
“He said, ‘Vanessa, get them out before Claire comes looking. I don’t care how. Just make them disappear for twenty minutes.’”
Ethan felt the phrase land.
Sophie’s small voice by the fountain.
He told her to make us disappear.
Martinez looked up.
“And then?”
“I walked away.”
“Toward the fountain?”
“Toward Ethan.”
Ethan interrupted.
“I was on the opposite side.”
Martinez nodded.
Maya continued.
“Vanessa followed me. She grabbed my arm.”
“Where was Sophie?”
“She had come looking for me.”
Ethan shut his eyes.
He had thought Sophie was with his father.
Thomas had thought she was with Ethan.
The family had managed to lose track of a six-year-old in a garden full of waiters, flowers, open water and strangers because everyone had assumed someone else was watching her.
That guilt would belong to more than one person.
“What happened when Sophie reached you?” Martinez asked.
“She grabbed my hand. Vanessa told me to stop making a scene.”
“Were you making one?”
“No.”
Maya gave a tired, humorless laugh.
“I was trying very hard not to.”
“What happened physically?”
“Vanessa stepped in front of us. I went around her. She grabbed the back of my arm again. I pulled away.”
“And Sophie?”
“She was beside me.”
Maya’s face changed.
Ethan had seen the moment a hundred times since pulling them from the water, though he had not witnessed the beginning.
“She told Vanessa not to touch me.”
Martinez waited.
May you like
“Vanessa reached for me again. Sophie stepped between us.”
Ethan looked at Maya.
