Chương 6
Dominic noticed things because they affected me.
“That does not mean you get to decide everything.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
I studied him.
“You really do say that a lot.”
“Because you really do need to hear it.”
That irritated me.
Mostly because he was right.
I placed Lily carefully in the crib.
For a few seconds, I simply watched her sleep.
A strange calm settled over me.
Not because the danger was gone.
Because she was here.
Because after everything, this small person existed.
Dominic stood near the doorway.
“You should rest.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“I don’t know how.”
That answer surprised both of us.
I sat on the edge of the bed.
“I spent months preparing myself for disappointment.”
Dominic did not move.
“I thought I was never going to have this.”
I looked at Lily.
“And now I do.”
My voice broke slightly.
“I am happy.”
He nodded.
“But?”
I looked down.
“But I keep waiting for someone to take it away.”
The room went quiet.
Dominic looked at the floor.
Then he said something I did not expect.
“I understand that.”
I looked up.
“You?”
“Yes.”
I waited.
He did not continue.
Not because he was hiding.
Because some memories were not ready to become words.
Before I could ask, his phone rang.
He checked the screen.
His expression changed.
“Who is it?”
“My lawyer.”
That made me sit straighter.
“Why would your lawyer call now?”
Dominic answered.
“Because something happened.”
He listened.
Then his eyes moved toward me.
“Send me everything.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
He hesitated.
Then he placed the phone on the table.
“Grant’s wedding did not happen.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“The ceremony was delayed.”
“Why?”
Dominic looked at the screen again.
“Because someone delivered documents to the church.”
My stomach tightened.
“What documents?”
His eyes met mine.
“Copies of your medical records.”
The room seemed to lose all sound.
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
I stood too quickly.
The room tilted slightly.
“He wouldn’t.”
Dominic did not argue.
That scared me more than anything.
“Those records were sent to the wedding guests.”
I looked at Lily.
My daughter was still sleeping.
Still innocent.
Still untouched by the ugliness surrounding her.
“What did they say?”
Dominic’s voice became quieter.
“They showed that you were pregnant before the divorce was finalized.”
I closed my eyes.
A memory came back.
Grant standing in our apartment.
His suitcase by the door.
His face already decided.
The divorce papers on the table.
The sentence that destroyed something inside me.
You should have told me.
Except I had tried.
He never gave me the chance.
I opened my eyes.
“Who sent them?”
Dominic picked up his phone again.
“We don’t know.”
“But someone wanted everyone at that wedding to see them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
And this time, I saw the answer before he said it.
Because someone did not want Grant Kingsley to marry Sienna Vale.
Someone wanted his perfect life to collapse publicly.
And somehow, my daughter and I were the weapon they had chosen.
The room felt smaller after that.
Not because anything had changed physically.
The walls were still the same.
The crib was still beside the window.
Lily was still sleeping.
But suddenly every safe thing around me felt temporary.
“Who would do this?” I whispered.
Dominic leaned against the table.
“That is the question we need to answer.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“That is not the first question.”
His eyebrows moved slightly.
“What is?”
“Why did nobody tell me?”
He did not respond.
Because there was no easy answer.
That was what hurt.
Not the documents.
Not the exposure.
The fact that once again, people had made decisions around me while I was the last person to know.
I had spent years married to a man who told me he was protecting me when he was actually protecting himself.
I did not want to repeat that pattern.
“Dominic.”
He looked at me.
“If you know something, tell me.”
“Not when it is convenient.”
“No.”
“Not when you think I am ready.”
His expression softened.
“Claire.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
I almost laughed.
There it was again.
But this time, it did not annoy me.
Because he was not dismissing me.
He was listening.
“I should have told you sooner that someone accessed your records,” he said.
The honesty caught me off guard.
“You’re admitting that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it was my mistake.”
I stared at him.
People like Grant never admitted mistakes.
They explained them.
They justified them.
They blamed circumstances.
Dominic simply accepted the weight of his choice.
“I thought I could handle it before it reached you,” he continued.
“And you couldn’t.”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“I couldn’t.”
That was the first time I saw the limits beneath his confidence.
Dominic Moretti was not invincible.
He was just someone who had become very good at hiding the moments when he was not.
I sat down slowly.
“Tell me everything.”
He pulled out the chair across from me.
“This is what I know.”
The way he spoke changed.
Not like someone giving a speech.
Like someone organizing facts because emotions made them harder to carry.
“After your divorce became public, a private investigator connected to one of my companies noticed something unusual.”
I frowned.
“Why would your company investigate my divorce?”
“It was not about you.”
“That is a very suspicious answer.”
“It was about Grant.”
“Why?”
“Because he was attempting to acquire a smaller investment firm connected to a business partner of mine.”
I leaned back.
“So this is business.”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
Dominic looked at Lily.
“Nothing involving Grant seems to stay only business.”
I hated how believable that sounded.
“What did the investigator find?”
“That Grant had been pressuring people to remove certain information from internal records.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“What information?”
“Your pregnancy.”
May you like
I looked away.
The room became quiet except for the faint hum of the apartment.
