Chương 7
LUCAS VANCE.
Her eyes lifted.
“That’s Mark’s brother.”
Ruiz sat very still.
“Is he a notary?”
“I guess.”
Naomi laughed once, stunned.
“You guess?”
“He works in real estate.”
Elara looked back at the document.
The signature was hers.
Except it wasn’t.
The difference became visible once she stopped looking at the shape and started looking at the habit.
Whenever Elara signed her married name, the final stroke of Vance curved back beneath the word.
This one did not.
Mark had watched her sign thousands of things.
He knew the letters.
He had copied the appearance.
He had missed the reflex.
“I didn’t sign it.”
Tessa closed the laptop halfway.
“Don’t touch or contact either Mark or Lucas about this.”
Elara barely heard her.
“How much?”
“Excuse me?”
“How much money is against the cabin?”
Tessa reopened the file.
“Four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Naomi sat down.
The chair caught her badly, and she almost missed it.
Elara stared at the wall.
The cabin was worth perhaps six hundred thousand.
Her father had built the back deck himself, badly enough that every summer he promised to redo it and never did.
Their mother’s height marks were still penciled inside the pantry door.
Leo had never been there.
Elara had imagined taking him the following summer.
Mark had borrowed nearly half a million dollars against it without telling her.
“For the company?”
Elara asked.
“We don’t know where the money went.”
“But you think he took it.”
Tessa chose her words carefully.
“I think we have enough to investigate whether documents were falsified.”
Ruiz’s phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen and stood.
Her expression had changed again.
“What?”
Elara asked.
Ruiz looked at Tessa.
Then at Elara.
“Mark is downstairs.”
Naomi rose immediately.
“I thought security blocked him.”
“They did.”
“Then why are you telling us?”
“Because he isn’t asking to come up anymore.”
Elara felt Leo’s warm weight against her chest.
“What is he doing?”
Ruiz slipped her phone into her pocket.
“He brought a lawyer.”
Elara swallowed.
“And?”
“They’re demanding access to your son.”
Elara’s first reaction was so physical that she curled one arm around Leo and pulled him closer before anyone had explained what Mark could legally demand.
“No.”
Ruiz nodded once.
“That’s what I told them.”
“Can he take him?”
Naomi asked.
Tessa shut her laptop completely.
“This isn’t my area.”
Ruiz looked at Elara.
“Mark is Leo’s father, and there is no custody order in place.”
Elara’s fingers tightened around the edge of Leo’s blanket.
“But?”
“But hospitals control access to patients, and Leo is here with you under the current care arrangement.”
Ruiz kept her voice measured.
“Mark cannot simply walk upstairs and remove him because he says he wants to.”
“What does his lawyer say?”
“That Mark has been unfairly denied contact with his child.”
Naomi’s laugh was sharp.
“He denied contact with his child for three days.”
“Elara.”
Ruiz’s voice was gentle but firm.
“Do not let your sister’s anger make this decision for you.”
Naomi opened her mouth.
Ruiz raised one hand.
“And don’t let Mark’s pressure make it either.”
Elara looked down at Leo.
He had fallen asleep again with milk dampening the corner of his mouth.
The absurdity of adults fighting over access to someone who could not hold up his own head made her chest ache.
“What happens if I say he can’t see Leo?”
“Today?”
Ruiz asked.
“Yes.”
“Today, security keeps him downstairs.”
“And tomorrow?”
“That depends on what he does next.”
The answer frightened Elara more than a simple no would have.
“Can he go to court?”
“Yes.”
“Can he say I’m keeping his son from him?”
“Yes.”
“Can he say I’m unstable because I was unconscious?”
Naomi muttered something vicious.
Ruiz ignored it.
“He can say many things.”
“Will they believe him?”
“A court will look at evidence, not just whichever person gets there first.”
Elara stared at her.
Ruiz’s expression softened slightly.
“But getting competent family-law advice quickly would be wise.”
Elara almost laughed at the phrase competent family-law advice.
Twelve days earlier she had been comparing diaper creams.
Now she apparently needed a detective, a financial investigator, and a divorce attorney.
“I don’t have a lawyer.”
Naomi said, “I can find one.”
“No.”
“Elara—”
“I said no.”
Naomi’s jaw tightened.
Elara immediately regretted the tone.
“I mean I’ll choose one.”
Naomi looked away.
“Fine.”
Elara turned back to Ruiz.
“I don’t want Mark near Leo right now.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Then he won’t come upstairs.”
“What if he refuses to leave?”
“He’s already been told he has to.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Ruiz gave a tired half-smile.
“Then his birthday weekend gets even worse.”
Tessa actually snorted.
It was the first moment in hours that made Elara feel like she was surrounded by people rather than procedures.
Ruiz’s phone buzzed again.
She glanced at it and frowned.
“He’s leaving.”
Naomi walked to the window.
“You can see the front entrance from here.”
Elara did not move.
“I don’t want to.”
Naomi stood there anyway.
A minute passed.
Then she said, “He has the watch on.”
Elara closed her eyes.
Of course he did.
Mark always wore new things immediately.
Shoes came out of boxes before the tissue paper was thrown away.
A new car meant a photo before the temporary plate was even installed.
The watch had probably been on his wrist when he first saw the nursery carpet.
The thought should have made her furious.
Instead she felt tired.
“Naomi.”
“What?”
“Stop watching him.”
Naomi let the curtain fall.
“Okay.”
Ruiz left shortly after that, taking Tessa with her and reminding Elara not to respond to Mark, Lucas, or anyone representing Harrow Bridge Capital without counsel.
The room became painfully ordinary once they were gone.
A television in the next room played a game show.
May you like
Somewhere down the hall, a baby cried with the furious stamina of a much larger person.
A dietary aide brought Elara chicken broth, gelatin, and tea she did not want.
