Chương 3
He rubbed one hand across his mouth.
“There were circumstances you do not understand.”
“Try me.”
“Not with Lily here.”
Megan immediately took Lily’s hand.
“Come with Aunt Meg.”
Lily resisted.
“I want Daddy.”
The word stopped everyone.
Damian’s eyes lowered.
Claire crouched in front of her.
“You can see him again.”
“Promise?”
Claire looked at Damian.
Six years ago she would have promised without thinking.
Now she said, “I promise we’ll talk about it.”
Lily frowned because she understood that was not the same thing.
Megan led her toward the side doors.
Lily looked back twice.
Damian did not wave until the second time.
When the door closed, Claire faced Richard.
“Start.”
Richard looked at Damian.
“You’re allowing him to frame this.”
“I’m allowing you to speak.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Claire laughed once.
The sound frightened her.
Evan pulled out a chair for her.
She remained standing.
Richard continued.
“The doctors did not know whether Damian would survive. You were hemorrhaging. Your pregnancy was unstable. You were barely eating. Every update sent you into another panic.”
“So you told me he was dead.”
“At the time, there was a significant likelihood that he would die.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
“No.”
“Did you know when he woke up?”
Richard looked at the floor.
Claire waited.
“Yes.”
Damian turned away.
He went to the windows, then seemed to remember there were people on the other side of the glass and stopped short of them.
Claire could see his fingers flex.
“Did you speak to him?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
Richard’s answer came carefully.
“That you had nearly lost the baby. That the relationship had become destructive. That you needed stability.”
Damian turned.
“You told me she had miscarried.”
Richard’s eyes sharpened.
“I told you she had suffered a severe pregnancy complication.”
“You said there was no baby anymore.”
“I do not remember every word from six years ago.”
“I do.”
Richard looked at Claire.
“He had just woken from a coma. He had drugs in his system. He had a history you continue to romanticize.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
Claire looked at him.
“What history?”
Richard almost smiled.
There it was.
A piece of leverage he had apparently waited years to use.
Damian answered first.
“Pain pills.”
Claire stared.
He glanced at the floor.
“After I tore my shoulder on the Hartford job. I told you I’d stopped.”
“You said you had.”
“I had. Then I started again.”
“How long?”
“Two months.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“You were using when you crashed?”
“No.”
Richard leaned forward.
“You cannot know that.”
“I know exactly what was in my toxicology report.”
“You were taking oxycodone illegally.”
“Yes.”
Damian said it without defense.
Claire pressed her fingertips against her forehead.
Six years of grief did not disappear simply because a different betrayal had entered the room. Memories rearranged themselves badly.
Damian asleep on her couch at two in the afternoon.
Damian snapping at her over nothing.
Cash missing from the envelope in her kitchen drawer.
His insistence that work was exhausting him.
She had believed him because loving someone made explanations easier to accept.
“You lied to me too.”
“Yes.”
The immediate answer hurt more than an excuse.
Richard spread his hands.
“That was what I was dealing with.”
Claire looked at him.
“You were dealing with it?”
“I was dealing with my pregnant daughter engaged to a man with an addiction he was hiding.”
“So you killed him.”
“I removed him from your life.”
Silence.
Richard heard himself.
His expression shifted.
Claire stared at her father.
Damian said quietly, “Thank you for finally calling it what it was.”
Richard stood.
“I did not physically harm you.”
“No. You waited until I was in a hospital bed with a skull fracture and told me Claire wanted me gone.”
“You had nearly gotten another man killed.”
“Javier died because a truck crossed the median.”
“You were impaired.”
“No.”
“You were using.”
“Those are different facts.”
Claire looked at Damian.
“Were you responsible for the crash?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“State police reconstruction. Insurance investigation. The truck driver lost control. I was under the limit for every tested substance and there was no alcohol.”
Richard scoffed.
Damian reached for his phone, then stopped.
“I can show you later.”
Claire almost said later?
The word implied a future beyond the next five minutes.
She did not know if one existed.
“Why didn’t you call me when you woke up?”
“I did.”
“When?”
“First afternoon I could stay awake longer than ten minutes.”
“My phone never rang.”
“Your father answered.”
Claire turned toward Richard.
He did not deny it.
Damian’s voice remained low.
“He said you were sleeping. He said the baby was gone. He said you blamed me for the stress and didn’t want to hear my voice.”
Claire’s knees weakened.
Evan guided her into the chair he had pulled out earlier.
This time she sat.
“Then what?”
“I called again.”
“How many times?”
“Eight or nine over the next week.”
Richard said, “You were blocked after the second call.”
Claire looked at him.
“You blocked him on my phone.”
“You were not emotionally capable of dealing with him.”
“I was twenty-nine.”
“You were in bed bleeding and sedated half the time.”
“I was not unconscious for six years.”
Richard’s mouth closed.
Damian looked at Claire.
“I wrote.”
She held up the envelope.
“How did you get this?”
“A woman named Marjorie Sloan gave it to me.”
Claire frowned.
Her father’s former executive assistant.
Marjorie had organized birthdays, medical appointments, corporate retreats, condolence baskets, and the guest lists for half the charity events Claire attended as a child.
“She retired four years ago.”
“She contacted me three months ago.”
Richard’s head came up.
For the first time, genuine alarm crossed his face.
Damian saw it too.
“She had more than this.”
Claire looked at the envelope.
“How many?”
“Seven from you.”
“I wrote four.”
“Seven.”
May you like
“I only remember four.”
Damian nodded.
