Chương 3
He did not know how to ask a child what had been taken from her.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
Sophie looked at Elena again, then back at him.
“You’re Adrian.”
“Yes.”
“You own the tall building where Mom got yelled at.”
Elena closed her eyes briefly.
Adrian’s mouth tightened.
“I work there,” he said. “I don’t own all of it.”
Sophie seemed unimpressed by the correction.
“Mara said you’re my father.”
Adrian’s breath stopped.
“Mara said I might be,” she amended.
Mara looked ashamed.
“Mom says we need a test because grown-ups can be wrong even when they’re sure.”
“That’s true,” Adrian said.
“Are you sure?”
He studied her face.
There were details he had already recognized and details he was afraid he had invented. The blue of her eyes. The slight crease between her eyebrows when she listened. The way her smallest finger curled inward when she held the cup. His father had done that. Adrian did it when he was tired.
“I’m sure we need the test,” he said.
Sophie accepted this.
“Will it hurt?”
“No. It’s usually a swab inside your cheek.”
“Usually?”
“Almost always.”
Elena gave him a warning look.
“It won’t hurt,” he corrected.
Sophie drank again.
Adrian looked at Elena. “Where do you live?”
“In Queens.”
“How long?”
“Five years.”
“And before that?”
“Jersey City.”
He swallowed.
She had been within an hour of him for almost all of Sophie’s life.
“Did you ever leave the country?”
“No.”
“Change your name?”
“No.”
“Why couldn’t I find you?”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“You didn’t look.”
His head moved back as if she had slapped him.
She did not soften the statement.
“You were told I ended the pregnancy,” she said. “You were told I moved to California. You believed it because believing it let your life continue.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“No. It isn’t.”
He looked away.
The fireplace made a faint ticking noise as the metal screen warmed.
Julia sat in a chair near the bookshelves. Her posture was straight, but she had removed one shoe and pressed her bare foot into the rug. The gesture was so unlike her that Adrian stared.
She noticed.
“My feet hurt,” she said.
He nodded.
It was the sort of exchange they might have had after any long charity event, except that a child sat between them drinking hot chocolate and wearing Adrian’s eyes.
Mara set her purse on the chess table.
“The letters are real,” she said. “At least, the ones I checked. Some were sent certified. The tracking numbers still exist in the postal archive. They were delivered to the family office.”
“How many?”
“Seventeen from Elena. Four from her mother. Two from a lawyer at a community legal clinic.”
Adrian looked at Elena.
“You hired a lawyer?”
“I asked someone how to make your family stop threatening me.”
“What threats?”
Elena glanced at Sophie.
“Not now.”
Sophie lowered the cup. “I know about the money.”
Elena’s arm tightened around her.
“You know that Grandma said rich people use money to make problems quiet,” Sophie continued. “She said we weren’t a problem.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“Which grandmother?”
“My grandma,” Sophie said, puzzled.
Elena stood so quickly that hot chocolate sloshed over the rim of Sophie’s cup.
“I’m taking her home.”
Adrian rose.
“Elena.”
“This was a mistake.”
“You didn’t create this.”
“I brought her.”
“Mara brought her.”
“I agreed.”
Sophie looked from one adult to another. Her lower lip did not tremble. That restraint hurt more than tears would have.
Julia retrieved a napkin and wiped chocolate from Sophie’s fingers.
“Everyone stop,” she said.
The authority in her voice silenced the room.
“She has heard enough adults argue about who caused her existence.”
Elena stared at her.
Julia folded the stained napkin into a neat square.
“She should go home,” she said. “And no one from this family should follow without permission.”
Adrian’s first reaction showed on his face before he could hide it.
Julia saw.
“You do not get to become her father in the space between a ballroom and a parking garage.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
He looked at Sophie.
“No,” he said. “Probably not.”
Julia put Sophie’s shoe strap back into place where it had twisted.
“Your mother will take you home. Adrian will arrange the test through someone your mother approves. After that, the adults will make a plan.”
Sophie regarded her. “Are you his wife?”
“Yes.”
“Does that make you mad at me?”
Julia’s composure broke at the edges.
“No,” she said. “Nothing about this is your fault.”
“Are you mad at him?”
Julia looked at Adrian.
“Yes.”
Sophie considered that.
“My mom gets mad when people don’t tell the truth.”
“Mine too,” Julia said.
A small sound escaped Mara. It might have been a laugh if the room had contained less pain.
Elliot knocked and entered after Adrian answered.
“The ballroom is clear,” he said. “We have identified eleven guests who recorded the confrontation. At least three clips were transmitted before we could intervene.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened with the reflexes of his professional life.
“Where?”
“One went to a private group message. One appears to have been sent to a reporter. One is already posted.”
Elena went pale.
“Take it down,” she said.
“We can request removal,” Elliot replied. “We cannot guarantee it.”
“No one uses her name,” Adrian said.
Elliot’s expression remained neutral. “The post includes the child’s first name from the audio.”
Sophie looked down at her cup.
Adrian’s phone began vibrating in his pocket. Then Julia’s did. Mara’s followed.
None of them answered.
Elena took out her own phone. The screen displayed twelve missed calls, all from her mother.
“I have to go.”
“I’ll have a car take you,” Adrian said.
“No.”
“It’s safer.”
“For whom?”
May you like
He did not have an answer that would not sound like power.
Elena gathered Sophie’s coat from the back of the sofa. Julia helped her put it on. Adrian stood several feet away, hands at his sides.
