Chương 3
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“I told him.”
“Anything else?”
“He said I looked like you.”
Evelyn turned away.
Daniel stared at the door.
For twenty-one years he had imagined dozens of versions of seeing his father again.
In some, Daniel was calm and successful and unimpressed.
In others, Richard was old enough to understand what he had done.
Sometimes Daniel told him everything.
Sometimes he said nothing at all.
Not once had he imagined standing outside a hotel room on what should have been his wedding day while his six-year-old son held the man’s key.
Daniel took out his phone.
There were twenty-three new notifications.
He ignored them.
“Mom,” Ethan said.
Daniel looked at him.
Ethan had called Madison that twice by accident in the past month.
Each time Madison had pretended not to hear.
Each time Daniel had.
Now Ethan frowned at the door.
“Madison said he was family.”
Daniel’s hand tightened around the phone.
Evelyn whispered, “Oh, God.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What exactly did my fiancée tell my son?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I wasn’t there.”
“Then start with what you were there for.”
“I will.”
“Now.”
Evelyn looked toward Ethan.
Daniel understood.
He did not like it, but he understood.
He called Aaron.
His best man answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Eighth floor.”
“Do you need me?”
“Yes.”
Aaron arrived three minutes later still wearing his black tuxedo and white boutonnière. His face was pale with the controlled alarm of a man who had been managing other people’s questions downstairs.
He took one look at Daniel and did not ask for details.
Daniel knelt beside Ethan.
“Uncle Aaron’s going to take you to our room. I’ll be there soon.”
Ethan hesitated.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Are you mad at me?”
Daniel put both hands around his son’s small shoulders.
“No.”
“But everybody got quiet.”
“That wasn’t because you did anything wrong.”
“Madison was crying.”
“That wasn’t because you did anything wrong either.”
Ethan studied his face with unsettling seriousness.
“Are you still getting married?”
Daniel felt Evelyn look at him.
He did not lie.
“Not today.”
Ethan’s lower lip moved.
“I liked my suit.”
Daniel nearly broke then.
He pulled the boy against him.
“I like your suit too.”
Ethan wrapped both arms around his neck.
The hug lasted perhaps five seconds.
It felt longer than the ceremony had.
Then Aaron led Ethan down the hallway.
Daniel watched until they turned the corner.
Only after they were gone did he face Evelyn.
“Tell me everything.”
She looked at Room 814.
“Not here.”
“Why?”
“Because he may be inside.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You don’t know?”
“I haven’t spoken to him today.”
“You booked him a room and you don’t know whether he’s in it?”
“I booked the room because Madison asked me to. I told her it was a terrible idea. I told her repeatedly.”
“And then you did it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Evelyn looked tired in a way Daniel had never seen before. For three years he had known her as a composed woman who sent handwritten thank-you notes, kept emergency sewing kits in her car, and corrected restaurant servers politely enough that they thanked her afterward.
Now she leaned against the wall.
“Because she was going to do it whether I helped or not. I thought if I booked the room myself, I could control where he stayed, keep him away from the ballroom, make sure he left afterward.”
Daniel laughed once.
“Control.”
“Yes.”
“That worked out.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
“I do.”
He pointed at the door.
“My son met him.”
“I know.”
“He was in Madison’s room.”
“Yes.”
“She told Ethan to hide evidence from me.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you helped put him in this hotel on my wedding day.”
“Yes.”
Daniel stepped back.
For the first time since the ballroom, anger arrived with enough heat to feel useful.
“What was the plan?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Madison wanted you to see him.”
“Today?”
“After the reception.”
Daniel stared.
“She thought I was going to spend my wedding night meeting Richard?”
“She believed once you were married—”
Evelyn stopped.
Daniel waited.
“Go on.”
“She thought once you were married, you would understand that she wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
He nodded slowly.
There were sentences so unreasonable they circled around to clarity.
“So she wanted the marriage completed first.”
Evelyn’s eyes lowered.
“Yes.”
“Before giving me the information that might make me not want to marry her.”
“That is not how she described it.”
“How did she describe it?”
“As giving you something you had been too afraid to ask for.”
Daniel looked at the wall.
A framed print showed a sailboat under a blue sky.
He focused on it until he could trust his voice.
“I told her I wanted no contact with him.”
“I know.”
“I told her why.”
“I know.”
“I told her that he was never to meet Ethan.”
Evelyn said nothing.
Daniel turned back.
“I told her that.”
“Yes.”
“And she decided I was afraid.”
“She thought you were hurt.”
“They aren’t the same thing.”
“I know that now.”
“Now?”
Evelyn’s expression tightened.
“Daniel, I am not defending this.”
“You paid for it.”
“I made a bad decision.”
“No. You made a series of them.”
She absorbed that.
“Yes.”
He looked at 814 again.
“Does Richard know I’m here?”
“No.”
“Does he know what happened downstairs?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel took one step toward the door.
Evelyn reached for his arm, then stopped before touching him.
“You do not have to go in.”
He stared at the gold numbers.
814.
The entire day had narrowed to three digits.
Daniel put his hands in his pockets.
“No.”
Evelyn waited.
“I’m not meeting him because Madison arranged it.”
He turned toward the elevator.
“I’m not letting her make that decision too.”
Madison was waiting outside Daniel’s hotel suite when he returned.
May you like
Someone had removed her veil.
Without it, she looked less like a bride and more like a woman wearing an impossibly expensive dress on the worst afternoon of her life.
