Chương 3
“Do you know what this is?”
“Claire, where are you?”
“Answer me.”
“I’m coming.”
“Daniel.”
“Do not leave.”
The call ended.
Claire kept the phone at her ear for several seconds.
Noah stood up.
“Dad knows.”
She lowered the phone.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Noah.”
“You make that face when you know something and wish you didn’t.”
Claire stared at him.
“What face?”
“That one.”
Eli stepped backward.
“I really have to go.”
Claire forced herself not to move toward him.
“All right.”
Noah looked horrified.
“Mom.”
She ignored him.
“Can you tell me where I could find you tomorrow?”
Eli shook his head.
“Can I give you my number?”
He hesitated.
Claire opened her handbag slowly and took out a business card.
He did not reach for it.
She put it on the curb instead.
“You don’t have to call me. You don’t have to tell me anything. But if that bracelet belonged to you when you were born, then somebody knows why your name and my son’s birthday are connected.”
Eli stared at the card.
A man in a gray suit walked around them, annoyed by the obstruction.
“Some people are trying to use the sidewalk,” he muttered.
Claire looked up.
“Then use it.”
The man blinked and kept walking.
Noah smiled despite himself.
Eli bent down and took the card.
He read it.
“Claire Bennett.”
“Yes.”
“You’re really a Bennett?”
“By marriage.”
He looked at Noah.
“Then he is too.”
“Yes.”
Eli folded the card once and put it in his pocket beside the bracelet.
That bothered Claire.
“Could you not fold—”
She stopped herself.
Eli looked at her.
“Nothing.”
Another almost-smile.
Then he walked away.
Noah turned to Claire.
“We’re letting him go?”
“He isn’t ours to keep.”
“But Dad is coming.”
“That may be why we should let him go.”
Noah’s face went pale.
Claire wished she could take the sentence back.
Instead she watched Eli disappear around the corner.
Daniel arrived eleven minutes later.
Claire knew because she checked the time four times.
He stepped out of a rideshare wearing the navy suit he had chosen for Noah’s birthday lunch, no tie, his reading glasses still hooked into the front of his shirt. He did not look at the crushed gift.
He looked at the empty space beneath the street lamp.
“Where is he?”
Claire crossed her arms.
“Hello to you too.”
“Claire.”
“Noah is right here.”
Daniel seemed to notice their son for the first time.
His face rearranged itself.
“Buddy.”
Noah did not answer.
Daniel crouched.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“What happened?”
Noah looked at Claire.
“You tell him.”
Daniel stood again.
His eyes met his wife’s.
Claire had known him for fourteen years.
She knew the look he used when he was angry, embarrassed, scared, aroused, lying about a surprise, lying about work, and lying because he believed the truth would hurt someone unnecessarily.
This was none of those.
This was an expression she had never seen.
“What did the boy look like?” he asked.
Claire laughed once.
It was not funny.
“That’s your first question?”
“What did he look like?”
“Like Noah.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Noah whispered, “Dad?”
Claire’s anger arrived late but hard.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew something.”
Daniel glanced at their son.
“Not here.”
“Why not?”
“Because Noah is eight.”
“I’m standing right here,” Noah said.
Daniel rubbed both hands over his face.
The crosswalk chirped again.
Claire picked up the damaged birthday gift and put it into the SUV.
Then she opened the back door.
“Noah, get in.”
“No.”
“Noah.”
“You’re going to talk without me.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not fair.”
“This is not about fair.”
“If it’s about me, I should hear it.”
Daniel said, “Buddy—”
“Don’t call me buddy.”
Daniel’s mouth closed.
Claire felt a surprising stab of sympathy for him and resented it.
She looked at Noah.
“Five minutes. Your father and I need five minutes.”
Noah stared at both of them.
Then he climbed into the SUV and shut the door hard enough to make Claire wince.
She and Daniel stood beside the vehicle.
Neither spoke.
Finally Claire said, “Start.”
Daniel watched the tinted window.
“There was another fetus.”
The city did not change.
No thunder.
No collision.
A woman came out of the dry cleaner carrying three shirts wrapped in plastic.
Claire stared at her husband.
“What?”
“In the beginning.”
“What beginning?”
“The pregnancy.”
Claire’s tongue felt thick.
“My pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“You’re telling me I was pregnant with twins?”
“Not exactly.”
She stepped closer.
“Use words that mean something.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“The first ultrasound showed two gestational sacs. One was smaller. The second didn’t develop normally.”
Claire searched his face.
“No.”
“You were bleeding. You remember.”
“I remember bleeding. I remember the emergency room.”
“The specialist said it looked like vanishing twin syndrome.”
Claire’s shoulders loosened with sudden, furious relief.
“That’s not this.”
“No.”
“Then why are you here looking like somebody died?”
Daniel looked toward the corner where Eli had disappeared.
“Because there was another scan.”
Claire waited.
He did not continue.
She slapped him.
The sound shocked both of them.
Daniel turned his head.
A pedestrian glanced over.
Claire’s hand stung.
She had never hit anyone in her life.
“I’m sorry,” she said immediately.
Daniel touched his cheek.
“No, you’re not.”
“No.”
He nodded once.
“Fair.”
“Don’t be reasonable. Tell me.”
Daniel leaned against the SUV.
“Two days after Noah was delivered, I was asked to meet with the hospital’s legal administrator.”
Claire stopped breathing normally.
“Why?”
“They said there had been an identification discrepancy in neonatal records.”
“What does that mean?”
“They wouldn’t give me details.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You negotiate hospitals. You expect me to believe you accepted that?”
“I didn’t work in healthcare then.”
Claire had forgotten that.
At thirty-one, Daniel had still been working in corporate real estate.
May you like
He continued.
“They told me there was no medical risk to Noah. They said an internal labeling error had occurred and been corrected.”
