Chương 10
“No.”
“You have a visit with Noah in an hour.”
That made Ethan stand.
He washed his face, changed his shirt, and arrived nine minutes late. Claire was packing the diaper bag.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
His voice made her look at him.
“What happened?”
He glanced at Lily, who was warming a bottle.
“The police recovered messages.”
Claire stopped moving.
“What messages?”
“From Bianca to Charles.”
He told her.
Lily set the bottle down so hard that milk splashed across the counter.
Claire listened without speaking. When Ethan repeated Bianca’s line about the baby coming early, the room seemed to narrow.
Noah began to cry from the bassinet.
Claire moved toward him, but her legs felt unreliable. Ethan reached the bassinet first, then stopped and looked at her for permission.
She nodded once.
He lifted Noah carefully and settled him against his chest.
Noah’s cry faded.
Claire gripped the back of a chair. She had imagined Bianca as angry, frightened, impulsive. She had resisted imagining hope. Hope was colder.
“What did your lawyer say?” Lily asked.
“That the message changes the prosecutor’s position.”
“Your lawyer.”
“The prosecutor spoke to both sides.”
“Do the Vales know the message was recovered?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Charles resigned from the Vale board this morning.”
Claire laughed once in disbelief. “That’s what happens? He resigns?”
“It’s what happened this morning,” Ethan said. “It isn’t the end.”
He looked down at Noah. His hand covered nearly the entire back of the cream onesie.
“I have to testify,” he said.
“About what?”
“The calendar access. The messages. What Bianca told me. What I asked her to do.”
Lily crossed her arms. “You could claim privilege.”
“No.”
“You could forget.”
“No.”
Claire watched him.
“Why are you telling me?” she asked.
“Because my testimony will help Bianca’s defense too.”
Lily stared. “How?”
“They’ll show that I encouraged her to stop Claire from contacting me. They’ll say she believed she was acting to protect me.”
“You didn’t tell her to push anyone.”
“I told her to make it stop. More than once.”
Claire looked at Ethan holding their son.
Truth had not divided them into innocent and guilty. It had made the boundaries harder to bear.
Bianca requested a private meeting with Claire.
Nina advised against it. Ruiz called it unnecessary. Lily used several words that made Noah blink.
Claire agreed anyway, on the condition that attorneys attend and the conversation be recorded.
They met in a mediation room with a long table and no windows.
Bianca wore a gray dress and no jewelry except small gold earrings. Without the veil, diamonds, and practiced bridal smile, she looked younger. Tiredness had settled beneath her eyes.
Claire hated that she looked human.
The attorneys completed their cautions. Bianca’s lawyer said the meeting was not a negotiation and contained no admission beyond the proposed legal resolution.
Bianca looked at Claire. “Can they stop doing that?”
“No,” Claire said.
The lawyers fell silent.
For several seconds, only the recorder’s tiny red light moved.
Bianca folded her hands. “I did not go there to hurt the baby.”
“You went there because of the baby.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bianca looked toward her attorney, then back at Claire. “Because Ethan was going to leave.”
“He says he didn’t know what he was going to do.”
“He always says that after someone else makes the decision.”
Claire almost smiled. “We agree on something.”
Bianca’s mouth tightened.
She continued. “He told me you were pregnant. Then he said it might not be his. Then he said he needed time. We were six weeks from announcing the merger. My father had borrowed against everything. Ethan knew that.”
“So you thought a child would ruin your company.”
“I thought uncertainty would.”
“You sent the fake messages.”
Bianca looked down. “Yes.”
“You told him I miscarried.”
“Yes.”
“You came to the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“You pushed me.”
Bianca’s breathing changed. “You grabbed me.”
“When you tried to take my phone.”
“You were recording me.”
“Because you had followed me into a restricted hallway.”
“I wanted you to stop.”
“Existing?”
“Calling him.”
“He was the father of my child.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You made sure you wouldn’t know.”
Bianca’s attorney shifted, but she raised a hand.
For the first time, her composure cracked. “Do you think I don’t know what I did?”
“I think you know what happened.”
“What is the difference?”
“Knowing what happened is a list. Knowing what you did means living inside it.”
Bianca stared at her.
Claire had not planned the sentence. It did not feel victorious after she said it.
Bianca looked toward the blank wall. “After I miscarried, Ethan came to the clinic once. He left before the doctor arrived because his father had collapsed at work. He kept apologizing. I told him it was fine.”
Claire said nothing.
“It wasn’t fine,” Bianca continued. “I spent two days alone in my apartment. My father sent his assistant with soup. Ethan called every hour and talked about the hospital, the company, his mother. I listened. I became useful.”
“You also became cruel.”
“Yes.”
The simple answer disturbed Claire more than denial.
Bianca’s fingers tightened together. “When you said the detective was outside, I thought my life was over.”
“My son’s life almost was.”
“I know.”
“No, you know the sentence.”
Bianca closed her eyes.
Claire waited for an apology. None came.
Finally Bianca said, “I hoped the baby would make Ethan choose quickly.”
Claire’s skin went cold.
“And if he chose you?” she asked.
“I told myself I would leave.”
“But you hoped Noah would disappear.”
Bianca’s face folded for one second before she controlled it. “Yes.”
Claire stood.
Her attorney rose with her.
Bianca said, “I am sorry.”
Claire looked down at her.
There were apologies meant to repair, apologies meant to reduce punishment, and apologies spoken because silence had become unbearable. Bianca’s belonged mostly to the third kind.
May you like
Claire left it on the table.
Ethan testified before a grand jury and later at a hearing concerning the admissibility of digital evidence. His testimony became public in fragments.
