Part 6
“Yes.”
“Even if there are babies?”
Daniel swallowed.
“There are no babies.”
“Not yet.”
“No one is taking your room.”
“Claire said you promised.”
“I did not.”
Sophie frowned.
“Then she lied?”
Daniel chose his words carefully.
“She told you something that was not true.”
“That’s lying.”
“Yes.”
The child nodded once, almost satisfied by the plainness of it.
Daniel touched the edge of the green scarf.
“I need to go talk to Claire.”
Sophie leaned away.
“You’re safe here,” he said.
“She has a key.”
Daniel turned to Nora.
Nora removed the key from the inside lock.
“I’ll keep it.”
He stood.
At the door, Sophie said, “Daddy?”
He looked back.
“Don’t make her say sorry if she doesn’t mean it.”
Daniel felt the room tighten around the sentence.
“I won’t.”
The library doors were closed.
Daniel entered without knocking.
Claire stood at the window with her veil removed. It lay across a leather chair like something shed. Her mother, Vivian Whitmore, sat on the sofa holding a glass of water. Claire’s father stood near the fireplace. Daniel’s younger brother, Ethan, leaned against a bookcase, arms crossed.
All four looked at him.
“I asked for privacy,” Claire said.
Daniel glanced at Ethan.
His brother straightened.
“Maribel said the family needed someone neutral.”
“You are not neutral,” Claire replied.
“No one in this house is neutral.”
Vivian stood.
“What is going on?”
Daniel ignored the question.
He looked at Claire.
“Did you plan to move Sophie out of her room?”
Claire’s face did not change.
Vivian looked between them.
“What?”
Claire said, “We discussed reorganizing the bedrooms.”
“No, we didn’t.”
“You told me to make the household functional.”
“I told you to choose paint and furniture.”
“You said I should treat the house as mine.”
“I did not say you could move my daughter beside the staff quarters.”
Claire’s father took a step forward.
“Perhaps this should wait until after the guests leave.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“Daniel,” Vivian replied, “whatever disagreement you are having, humiliating Claire before the ceremony solves nothing.”
“The ceremony is not the priority.”
Claire laughed softly.
“Of course it isn’t.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Did you tell Sophie her room was needed for future children?”
Claire crossed her arms, then lowered them when the satin pulled across her shoulders.
“I told her families change.”
“Did you say she should move?”
“I said we might make the east wing more useful.”
“For whom?”
“For us.”
“She is part of us.”
Claire looked away.
Ethan shifted near the bookcase.
Vivian said, “This sounds like a misunderstanding.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“Sophie understood that after the wedding, she might lose her room and Nora might lose her job.”
Vivian’s face tightened.
“Children misunderstand adult conversations.”
“Claire spoke directly to her.”
Claire’s father said, “Is Nora making these claims?”
“Nora confirmed some of them. Sophie confirmed the rest.”
Vivian exhaled sharply.
“So the nanny and a five-year-old have decided the wedding?”
“No,” Daniel said. “I decide whether I get married.”
Claire’s eyes flashed.
“At last, something honest.”
Daniel looked back at her.
“Why did you threaten Nora?”
“I did not threaten her.”
“You told her you would replace her if she resisted you.”
“I told an employee that she needed to follow the structure of the household.”
“She has been raising Sophie for four years.”
“She has been paid to care for her.”
Ethan’s head lifted.
Claire saw it.
“I don’t mean that cruelly,” she said. “But she is not family.”
Daniel thought of the drawing in his jacket.
“Sophie thinks she is.”
“And that is the problem.”
The words came out too quickly.
Claire closed her eyes.
Vivian whispered her name.
Claire opened them again.
“No,” she said. “I am tired of pretending it is not a problem. Nora occupies every emotional space I am expected to fill. Sophie runs to her first. She listens to her. She asks permission from her. You defer to her because Rebecca trusted her.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Do not bring Rebecca into this.”
“She has been in this from the beginning.”
Vivian moved toward Claire.
“Darling, perhaps—”
“No.” Claire stepped away. “Everyone wants me to apologize without saying what I was asked to accept. I was expected to marry a widower, move into his dead wife’s house, obey his nanny’s routines, and smile while his daughter decided whether I had earned a place.”
“She is five,” Ethan said.
Claire turned on him.
“You do not live here.”
“No. I visit enough to know Sophie used to follow you everywhere.”
The room went quiet.
Daniel looked at his brother.
Ethan continued.
“Last summer, she wanted to dress like you. She asked Claire to braid her hair at the lake. She cried when Claire left early for work.”
Claire’s face softened for half a second, then closed.
“That was before.”
“Before what?” Daniel asked.
No one answered.
Ethan looked toward the floor.
Daniel stared at him.
“What do you know?”
“Not much.”
“Ethan.”
His brother rubbed one hand over the back of his neck.
“Two months ago, I came by when you were in Boston. Sophie was eating in the breakfast room with Nora. Claire was in here with a contractor.”
“What contractor?”
“I don’t know. Designer, architect, something.”
Claire said, “It was a space planner.”
Ethan looked at Daniel.
“There were floor plans on the table. The east wing was labeled nursery suite.”
Daniel felt something inside him go very still.
Vivian sat down.
Claire’s father looked at his daughter.
“Were you pregnant?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then why a nursery?”
Claire’s eyes stayed on Daniel.
“Because we discussed children.”
“We discussed possibly trying next year,” he said.
“And where did you imagine they would sleep?”
“There are twelve bedrooms.”
“Most are guest rooms.”
“Then convert a guest room.”
“This house is used for events. Your business partners stay here. Your family stays here. The east wing is private and quiet.”
“It is Sophie’s.”
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“One bedroom is Sophie’s. The rest is underused.”
“You planned to take her room.”
