Chương 5
He was doing it.
“So?”
“Alexander does that.”
Alexander immediately unclenched his hand.
Noah almost laughed.
Claire did.
It was a tiny laugh and it broke halfway through.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
Noah was beginning to hate that phrase too.
The swabs took less than two minutes.
Years of uncertainty apparently fit on six sterile sticks.
Afterward Claire asked, “Can I ask you something?”
Noah glanced at Evelyn.
“Sure.”
“Do you like baseball?”
“No.”
Alexander’s mouth twitched.
Claire said, “Thank God.”
Alexander looked offended.
“What?”
“You were going to make that the first thing.”
“I was not.”
“You brought Mets tickets.”
Alexander looked at Noah.
“I have Mets tickets.”
Noah stared at him.
“That’s kind of weird.”
“Yes,” Alexander said. “I’m realizing that.”
For the first time since the auction, Noah relaxed.
Not much.
Enough to feel the danger of it.
Claire asked about school.
Noah told her eighth grade was mostly people pretending not to care about things they cared about enormously.
Alexander said that sounded like most corporate boards.
Evelyn looked at him.
“Please don’t recruit him.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You compared middle school to corporate governance.”
“I apologize.”
“You should.”
Claire smiled again.
This one lasted.
Then she looked at Noah and the smile disappeared.
“We called him Samuel.”
The room changed.
Noah had not asked.
Claire’s fingers twisted together on the table.
“We named our son Samuel.”
Alexander looked down.
Claire continued because stopping had apparently become harder.
“He was born at two fourteen in the morning. Emergency delivery. He had trouble breathing. They took him upstairs. I saw him for maybe thirty seconds.”
Evelyn’s posture softened.
Claire looked directly at Noah.
“I don’t expect that name to mean anything to you.”
“It doesn’t,” Noah said.
The honesty hurt her.
He saw it.
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Don’t be.”
She swallowed.
“You’re Noah.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you are.”
Alexander said quietly, “Claire.”
“I’m fine.”
She was not.
Noah recognized that too.
The meeting ended without hugs.
He was grateful.
At the elevator, Alexander asked Evelyn if he could speak with her privately.
Noah said, “I’m standing here.”
Alexander paused.
“You’re right.”
Then he spoke to both of them.
“I don’t know how to do this.”
Evelyn’s eyes stayed on him.
“Neither do we.”
“If the test says—”
“It won’t change where Noah goes home.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened.
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“You were thinking it.”
“No.”
Claire touched his arm.
He stopped.
That was the first friction Noah saw between the people who might be his biological parents.
It comforted him more than their kindness.
On the ride home, Noah said, “You were mean to him.”
Evelyn stared through the car window.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to be.”
He waited.
She looked at him.
“I am not proud of every feeling I have.”
“Are you scared they’ll take me?”
“No one is taking you.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
She sighed.
“I am scared you’ll want a life I can’t give you.”
Noah frowned.
“What life?”
She gestured vaguely toward the city.
“Whatever their life is.”
“You think I want a private jet?”
“I don’t know if they have one.”
“They probably do.”
“That is not helping.”
“I’d still make you come.”
She looked at him.
“On the jet?”
“Yes.”
“Generous.”
“You could sit in economy.”
She laughed despite herself.
Noah leaned his head against the window.
The joke did not remove the fear.
It just gave them somewhere to put it for a minute.
Three days later, the DNA result came back.
Leah made everyone receive it together.
She said doing otherwise was likely to create accusations later.
Noah suspected she also knew none of them should be alone.
The conference room was the same.
The coffee stain was gone.
Noah resented that.
The technician placed the report on the table and explained probabilities in language Noah understood but barely heard.
Alexander Vale was consistent with being Noah’s biological father.
Claire Vale was consistent with being his biological mother.
The statistical confidence was overwhelming.
Noah stared at the page.
Claire cried without making sound.
Alexander covered his mouth with one hand.
Evelyn sat beside Noah so still he could feel the effort it took.
Leah finally said, “Noah?”
He nodded.
“What do you need?”
“I don’t know.”
Nobody rushed to answer for him.
He appreciated that.
Then Alexander stood abruptly and walked to the window.
Claire watched him.
“Alex.”
He pressed both hands against the sill.
“I buried him.”
Nobody spoke.
Alexander looked over his shoulder.
“I stood over a grave.”
His voice broke.
“I put my hand on a coffin.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Noah wanted to leave.
Not because they were doing anything wrong.
Because grief that large made him feel like an intruder in his own history.
Evelyn must have sensed it.
“We should stop for today.”
Claire wiped her face.
“Yes.”
Alexander turned.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
He immediately seemed ashamed.
“No. Sorry. I mean… I need to ask.”
He faced Noah.
“Where were you?”
Noah frowned.
“What?”
“After the hospital. Where did you go?”
Evelyn answered.
“An emergency infant shelter in Queens. Then a foster placement for six weeks. Then me.”
Alexander sat down slowly.
“Were you safe?”
Noah looked at Evelyn.
“Yes.”
Alexander’s eyes closed.
The relief on his face angered Noah.
“You don’t get to be relieved.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
Alexander opened his eyes.
Noah’s face felt hot.
“You don’t get to hear I was okay and make it better.”
“I wasn’t—”
“I was somewhere else. She had to wake up with me every night. She had to take me to doctors. She did everything.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Evelyn said, “Noah.”
He stood.
“I want to go home.”
Alexander did not argue.
That mattered.
The investigation widened after the DNA result.
May you like
Not publicly at first.
Leah contacted authorities through counsel and delivered copies of the medical records, Marianne’s statement, the forensic image of the recorder, and documentation tracing Noah’s placement.
