Chương 2
Now it only made her tired.
“You don’t get to follow me because you finally looked,” she said.
The side lounge smelled faintly of coffee and furniture polish. A hotel employee brought a glass of water and then hovered until Ruiz asked her to close the door. Claire lowered herself onto a cream sofa, supporting the carrier with both hands. Noah made a thin, questioning sound.
“I know,” she murmured. “Too many people.”
His eyelids fluttered. His face was still so small that strangers sometimes looked away from him, embarrassed by the evidence of how close a human being could come to not surviving. Claire had learned to read every change in his color, every pause between breaths. She counted without meaning to.
Ruiz sat across from her. “You went further than we discussed.”
“I told him the detective was outside. That was all.”
“You accused Ms. Vale in front of a ballroom full of witnesses.”
“She accused me of threatening her.”
“Which is now on approximately fifty phones.”
Claire looked at the closed door. “I saw people put them away.”
Ruiz gave her a tired look. “People never put them away.”
The uniformed officer spoke quietly into his radio. Somewhere beyond the wall, a man shouted, and another voice ordered him to lower his voice.
Ruiz leaned forward. “Did you come here because you believed you were in immediate danger?”
“No.”
“Did you intend to provoke Ms. Vale?”
“I intended to stop her from marrying him before he knew Noah was alive.”
“Those are not the same question.”
Claire looked down at Noah.
His hand had curled beneath his chin. The hospital nurses used to call him an old man because of the solemn crease above his nose. Claire had never found it funny, but she smiled when they said it because nurses working twelve-hour shifts deserved help carrying their own jokes.
“Ethan sent me the invitation,” she said. “Not the printed one. A message.”
Ruiz had seen the screenshot. “The one that said, ‘Come watch me win for once.’”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know whether he sent it.”
“It came from his number.”
“Phones can be accessed by other people.”
“I know.”
Ruiz waited.
Claire twisted the cap off the water bottle. Her fingers had begun to shake now that the ballroom was behind her.
“I wanted to see his face,” she admitted. “I wanted him to have to look at Noah in front of everyone who helped him pretend we didn’t exist.”
“That part I believe.”
It was not approval, but Claire appreciated the absence of condemnation.
A soft knock came at the door. Ethan’s voice followed.
“Claire?”
Her body reacted before her mind did. Her shoulders pulled tight. Noah sensed it and squirmed.
Ruiz looked at her. “Your choice.”
“No.”
Ruiz stood and opened the door only wide enough to block Ethan’s view into the room.
“She doesn’t want to speak with you.”
“I need to know about the test.”
“You can contact your attorney.”
“My attorney told me there was no result.”
Claire looked up.
Ruiz glanced back at her, then returned her attention to Ethan. “That is something you should discuss with your attorney.”
“I gave a sample seven weeks ago.”
Claire stood too quickly. The edge of the carrier pressed against her ribs. “You knew there was a test?”
Ethan heard her. “I agreed to it.”
“You told me you wouldn’t.”
“I changed my mind.”
“When?”
“After your petition was filed.”
“My petition was filed in January.”
“I was told you withdrew it.”
Claire walked toward the door, stopping behind Ruiz. “By whom?”
Ethan did not answer.
He did not need to.
The ballroom noise seemed to fall away behind him. His bow tie had shifted. A lock of dark hair had dropped across his forehead, making him look like the man who used to fall asleep on Claire’s sofa while pretending he was still watching a movie.
“Bianca handled the communication with the family attorney,” he said.
Claire laughed once. It sounded ugly in the small room.
“You let the woman who hated me handle the paternity case.”
“I didn’t know she hated you.”
“She came to the hospital.”
His face changed. “When?”
“The night Noah was born.”
“No. She said she went after.”
“She pushed me before the emergency delivery.”
Ethan braced one hand against the doorframe.
Ruiz interrupted. “This conversation is over.”
“Is there footage?” Ethan asked. “Actual footage?”
“There is preserved hospital surveillance video that is part of an active investigation.”
“I want to see it.”
“You don’t have a right to it.”
“I was told Claire attacked Bianca.”
Claire stared at him.
He closed his eyes briefly.
Ruiz’s voice hardened. “Mr. Cole, step away from the door.”
Ethan did, but only one pace. “Claire, I received photographs of Bianca’s bruises.”
“The bruises on her wrists?”
“Yes.”
“She got them when I stopped her from pulling my phone away.”
His gaze dropped to the phone in Claire’s hand.
“It was recording,” she said. “Not everything. Enough.”
Ruiz looked at Claire sharply. “We are not discussing evidence in a hallway.”
Charles Vale appeared behind Ethan with a gray-haired attorney Claire recognized from business magazines. Ethan’s mother stood several feet away, pale and furious.
The attorney addressed Ruiz. “My client will not be interviewed tonight.”
“Your client hasn’t been detained.”
“Then we are leaving.”
Ruiz looked toward Bianca, who stood between her father and the altar. “That is her decision. The hotel has preserved its own security recordings. I suggest no one contact Ms. Bennett directly.”
Ethan’s mother stepped forward. “My son has a right to know whether that child is his.”
May you like
Claire felt something in herself go still.
For four years, Margaret Cole had sent Claire birthday cards with pressed flowers tucked inside. She had invited her to family dinners and asked her opinion on paint colors. The final time they spoke, Margaret had said that a child should not be used to trap a man who had chosen another life.
