Chương 10
Harrison lowered his voice. “Brittany, I corrected the record.”
“You corrected one sentence.”
“It was the central accusation.”
“It was the easiest truth.”
His face tightened. “I disclosed donor conception to the entire city.”
“You disclosed what protected you from looking deceived.”
“What would you have preferred?”
“That when your mother looked at me like I was dirt, you said you knew.”
“I was trying to understand the photograph.”
“You understood the pregnancy.”
Nora touched Brittany’s arm. “We can leave.”
Harrison’s attention dropped to the missing engagement ring. “Where is it?”
“At the townhouse.”
“You left it on the table.”
“Yes.”
“You could have kept it.”
“That is not how ending an engagement works.”
The receptionist looked down very quickly.
Harrison swallowed. “Is that what you are doing?”
“I am deciding whether there was an engagement to end.”
“That is unfair.”
Brittany’s eyes filled, but her voice stayed level. “You asked me to build a family around the thing you were most ashamed of, then made me promise no one could see it. When they saw it anyway, you stepped aside.”
“I made a mistake.”
“You made a choice.”
“I had seconds.”
“You have had months.”
The elevator opened behind them. Gabriel Martin stepped out carrying a folder.
Harrison recognized him immediately from the photograph.
In person, Gabriel was not as tall as the donor profile had claimed, or perhaps Harrison had always imagined the height differently. He wore a navy peacoat over a green sweater. His hair was shorter than in the picture. He had the tired, guarded expression of a man who had spent the morning answering questions about his dead sister for strangers.
He saw Brittany, then Harrison.
No one moved.
Gabriel approached slowly. “They asked me to bring the original letter from the donor program.”
Simone held out her hand. “I’m Simone Park, Ms. Mercer’s attorney.”
Gabriel gave her the folder. “It has the date they acknowledged my update.”
Harrison looked at him. “You are Gabriel Martin.”
“Yes.”
“You donated under identification D-417.”
Gabriel’s mouth tightened. “I was told the program was confidential.”
“You met my fiancée.”
“She contacted me because the clinic did not answer her questions.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“I did not know you existed until she told me.”
Brittany turned to Gabriel. “You don’t need to do this here.”
Harrison heard the gentleness in her voice and hated himself for reacting to it.
Gabriel noticed.
He stepped back. “I am not interested in interfering with your family.”
“You already have.”
“Harrison,” Brittany said.
Gabriel looked at him for another second. “I donated sperm twelve years ago because my graduate-school insurance did not cover a dental surgery and the clinic paid nine hundred dollars over three appointments. I was twenty-six. I signed forms. I answered questions honestly based on what I knew. Two years ago, my sister collapsed while jogging and died before the ambulance arrived. Testing found a genetic mutation. I notified the clinic because their paperwork said I had that obligation.”
His voice remained calm, but one hand had closed around the strap of his bag.
“I do not want to be your child’s father. I do not want money. I do not want attention. I want the families who used my donations to have information my sister did not have.”
The lobby had become silent.
Harrison’s anger lost its target so abruptly that he felt off balance.
Gabriel continued. “Brittany cried because she was scared. I hugged her. Someone photographed it. That is all.”
Harrison looked at Brittany.
She stared at the floor.
Gabriel turned to Simone. “My test results can go directly to her doctors. I would prefer not to communicate through the clinic.”
“That can be arranged,” Simone said.
He nodded to Brittany and walked back toward the elevators.
Harrison called after him. “Mr. Martin.”
Gabriel stopped.
“I’m sorry about your sister.”
The apology sounded insufficient even to Harrison.
Gabriel gave a small nod. “So am I.”
He left.
Nora exhaled. “Well.”
No one looked at her.
She added, “I say ‘well’ when rich people make hallways unbearable.”
Brittany pressed her lips together, fighting a reaction that might have become a laugh or a sob.
Harrison saw it and remembered the first time he met her. She had been standing beneath a leaking tent at a charity auction, holding a tray over her head while everyone else ran inside. When he asked why she was laughing, she said the donors had paid twelve thousand dollars for an outdoor dining experience and were furious that outdoors had arrived.
He had loved her before he understood that her humor often appeared when she was frightened.
“I want to be included,” he said.
“In what?” Brittany asked.
“The testing. The appointments. Everything.”
“Why?”
“Because this is our child.”
Her face shifted. “Yesterday, everything was destroyed.”
“I should not have said that.”
“You did not say it. You looked at the trust and said good.”
“I meant no money had moved.”
“I know what you meant. That was the problem.”
Harrison glanced at Simone and Nora. “Can we have five minutes?”
Brittany considered, then walked toward a row of windows at the far end of the lobby. Harrison followed. Simone and Nora remained within sight.
Outside, ambulances moved through the hospital entrance. A man in blue scrubs stood by a concrete planter eating crackers from a vending-machine packet.
Harrison kept his hands in his pockets. “My father knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I was infertile.”
Brittany waited.
“He knew since the cancer. He never told my mother. He never told me that he knew.”
“What does that change?”
“I don’t know.”
“At least that is honest.”
He looked at her. “The board asked me to step aside.”
“I’m sorry.”
The automatic sympathy in her voice seemed to irritate her. She folded her arms.
“I deserve it,” he said.
“Maybe.”
“I lied on the trust questionnaire.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
May you like
“I saw the draft in your study. You had checked natural conception.”
“Why didn’t you confront me?”
