Chương 4
Sophie looked at him after her coat was buttoned.
“Will you do the test?”
“Yes.”
“Tomorrow?”
“As soon as your mother says.”
Elena’s face showed surprise at his restraint.
Sophie touched the back of her right hand where he had kissed it.
“You said you would have searched forever.”
Adrian’s eyes filled again, though no tears fell.
“I should have searched once,” he said.
Elena’s expression shifted.
It was not forgiveness. It was the recognition of a truthful sentence.
Sophie took her mother’s hand.
At the library door, Adrian spoke again.
“Elena.”
She turned.
“I don’t remember receiving a single letter.”
“I believe you.”
That answer seemed to wound him more deeply than accusation.
She and Sophie left through a service corridor with Elliot walking ahead of them and Mara behind. Julia remained in the library.
Adrian listened until the sound of Sophie’s shoes disappeared.
Then he sat in the chair she had used and stared at the half-finished hot chocolate. One marshmallow remained intact near the side of the cup.
His phone continued vibrating.
Julia put her shoe back on.
“How long did you know Elena?” she asked.
“Two years.”
“You told me six months.”
He lifted his head.
“When?”
“When we were engaged. I asked whether you had ever loved anyone enough to regret losing them.”
“I remember.”
“You said there had been someone for six months after graduate school.”
“I lied.”
“Yes.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I didn’t know about Sophie.”
“I believe you.”
He looked toward the door.
“That is what Elena said.”
“Perhaps because not knowing is not the same as being innocent.”
He turned his wedding ring.
Julia watched the movement.
“Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without caution.
Julia’s face went still again.
Adrian noticed too late.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for answering quickly. It may be the first honest thing you’ve said tonight.”
“I loved her then.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
He stood and walked to the fireplace, then back. Fast movement felt obscene after Sophie’s careful hand.
“I don’t know what I feel,” he said.
Julia laughed once, quietly.
“Of course you do. You simply don’t know which feelings you’re permitted to admit.”
“That is unfair.”
“Everyone keeps saying that tonight.”
He looked at her.
She took off one diamond earring, then the other, and placed them beside the chessboard.
“I’m going to a hotel.”
“You don’t need to leave the apartment.”
“I don’t want to sleep beside you.”
“Julia.”
“I am not punishing you for having a child you didn’t know about. I am leaving because our marriage has just been forced to stand beside the truth, and I don’t like what I can see.”
He did not try to stop her.
After she left, Adrian went back into the ballroom.
Catering staff cleared glasses while pretending not to watch him. A violinist packed her instrument. Two foundation employees whispered near the stage and fell silent when he passed.
The place where he had knelt was marked by faint moisture from one of his palms.
His mother remained near a marble column.
Everyone else in the family had gone except Mara, who stood with the locked brass box she had retrieved from their father’s office. She held it against her hip.
Margaret looked smaller without an audience.
Adrian stopped several feet away.
“Did you know she was born?”
His mother’s eyes moved to the box.
“Yes.”
The answer contained no defense.
Adrian waited for anger to arrive. What came first was nausea.
“How long?”
“From the beginning.”
“You saw her?”
“Once.”
Mara turned toward her.
“You never told me that.”
Margaret’s lips pressed together.
Adrian’s voice lowered. “When?”
“At the hospital.”
The ballroom seemed to tilt.
“You went to the hospital?”
“Your father sent me.”
“To do what?”
“To make certain Elena understood the situation.”
“What situation?”
Margaret looked at the staff still clearing tables.
“Not here.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“You let me kneel in front of my daughter in this room, and now you are worried about privacy?”
Mara put the brass box on a table.
“Open it,” she said.
Margaret’s attention snapped toward her. “You have no right.”
“Father left me joint authority over the private archive.”
“He did not intend—”
“He intended me to handle the inconvenient things after he died. I’m handling one.”
Mara unlocked the box.
Inside were folders arranged by year. Elena’s name had been printed on a white tab in the same typeface used for property acquisitions and pending litigation.
Adrian touched the tab but did not pull the folder out.
His father had turned a woman and a child into a file.
“Why?” he asked.
Margaret folded her hands.
“Your father believed Elena was dangerous.”
“Elena planned corporate events.”
“Her mother had debts. Her brother had been arrested. Your father thought the family would use the pregnancy to attach themselves to you.”
“Her brother was arrested for protesting an eviction,” Mara said. “The charge was dismissed.”
Margaret ignored her.
“The merger with Harrington was fragile. The board had already questioned your judgment after you refused the London relocation. Your father believed another scandal would cost you the succession.”
“So he threatened her.”
“He offered support.”
“There’s an uncashed check for two million dollars in the file,” Mara said. “It came with a confidentiality agreement and a waiver of future claims.”
Adrian pulled out the folder.
The first envelope was yellowed slightly along one edge. His name was written across the front in Elena’s narrow handwriting.
The seal had been cut.
He removed the letter.
Adrian, I know you are angry, but I need you to understand that I did not plan this. I am scared, and I am still trying to decide what is right. Your father says you will deny everything if I contact you directly. I do not believe him. Please call me.
The bottom of the page contained a phone number he had once known by heart.
May you like
He read the letter twice.
“When was this delivered?”
