Chương 11
Elena’s mother, Rosa, learned about the poisoning from television.
She learned about Lily’s father from a reporter who shouted the question through the apartment door.
“You told no one?” Rosa asked.
They sat in the hotel room while Lily watched cartoons with headphones near the window.
“No one.”
“Not even me.”
“I told you he was gone.”
“You told me the father wanted nothing to do with her.”
“I was angry.”
“You were afraid.”
“That too.”
Rosa looked older than she had the week before. Diabetes had narrowed her life into appointments, injections, and careful meals she resented. She wore a purple cardigan regardless of season because air conditioning made her bones ache.
“You worked in his house,” she said.
“I needed the insurance.”
“You could have cleaned another house.”
“Not for that salary.”
“You could have told me.”
“You would have told him.”
“Yes.”
“That is why I didn’t.”
Rosa’s eyes flashed. “A child has a right to be known.”
“A child has a right to live without security guards checking her backpack.”
“And now she has both problems.”
Elena looked toward Lily.
The child laughed at something on the screen, then quickly lowered the volume as if laughter might be inappropriate.
Rosa softened.
“You cannot hide blood forever,” she said.
“It was not blood I was hiding.”
“What, then?”
Elena thought of Adrian at twenty-four, standing in her kitchen with rain on his coat and another man’s blood on his cuff. He had looked tired, almost boyish. He had asked her to leave Chicago with him for a month. She had asked what happened. He said knowing would not make her safer.
The next morning, she had packed.
“I was hiding the kind of life that comes with it,” she said.
Rosa followed her gaze to Lily. “It found her anyway.”
The fourth request to meet Adrian arrived through Miriam Shaw rather than Cole. It included no threat and no promise of money. Shaw said Adrian wanted to discuss Lily’s safety, the ongoing case, and paternity. Elena could bring counsel, Detective Bell, or no one. The meeting would take place in a hospital-affiliated rehabilitation office with security approved by police.
Elena agreed because refusing had stopped feeling like protection.
She left Lily with Rosa.
Adrian arrived early. He wore a charcoal suit without a tie. He had lost enough weight that the jacket sat wrong across his shoulders. A steel watch circled his wrist, and the silver ring remained on his right hand. His hair was dry for once, combed back but already falling loose near his forehead.
Elena entered with a legal-aid attorney named Priya Desai.
Adrian stood.
The effort showed.
Elena noticed and resented herself for noticing.
“Sit,” she said.
He did.
Priya placed her folder on the table. Shaw sat beside Adrian. The women exchanged professional greetings. Adrian and Elena did not.
The room contained four chairs, a box of tissues, and a framed photograph of a sailboat. Elena disliked offices that displayed tissues. They made crying seem scheduled.
Adrian looked at her black coat. “You don’t have to wear the uniform.”
She looked down before realizing what he meant. “I’m not.”
The coat was simply black.
He nodded.
“Lily?” he asked.
“With my mother.”
“How is she?”
“Angry.”
“At me?”
“At both of us.”
“That seems fair.”
Elena had not expected that answer.
Priya opened the folder. “Mr. Moretti has requested voluntary paternity testing. You are not required to consent without a court order.”
Elena looked at Adrian. “You believe me?”
“I believe the dates.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He shifted slightly in the chair. “I believe you would not choose me if you were inventing a father.”
Priya glanced down, perhaps hiding a reaction.
Elena’s face warmed. “You haven’t changed.”
“I’ve changed in ways you would dislike more.”
“What do you want?”
“To know her.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Adrian accepted it without visible surprise. “Why?”
“You are under investigation.”
“For being poisoned.”
“For everything that comes after police open your doors.”
His eyes hardened. “You think I would expose her?”
“She is already on television.”
“Because Vanessa threatened her.”
“Because your life entered hers.”
“My life entered hers eight years ago.”
“No. I stopped it.”
“You delayed it.”
Elena leaned forward. “Do not turn this into something I stole from you.”
“You did.”
The room changed.
Shaw placed a hand near Adrian’s sleeve but did not touch him.
Elena stared at him. “You had men following you. You came to my apartment bleeding. You asked me to trust you while refusing to tell me what danger you brought to my door.”
“I was trying to keep you out of it.”
“So was I.”
“You made that decision alone.”
“Yes.”
“You decided I could not be her father.”
“I decided you could not make her safe.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Priya said, “Perhaps we should take a break.”
“No,” Elena replied.
She had spent years editing this argument in her head. In every version, Adrian understood immediately. That had been childish. Real people protected themselves, especially when truth arrived late.
Adrian looked at the sailboat photograph. “Did she ask about me?”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
“That you lived far away.”
“Did you tell her I didn’t want her?”
Elena’s silence answered.
He looked back at her.
“I was angry,” she said.
“At me for something I didn’t know?”
“At the life you chose.”
His face remained still, but she saw the hurt move beneath it.
“You worked in my house,” he said.
“I worked for your insurance plan.”
“You walked past me every day.”
“Not every day.”
“You let me speak to her as if she belonged to someone else.”
“She belonged to herself.”
“That sounds noble.”
“It kept me alive.”
The words escaped before she could soften them.
Adrian looked at her for a long time.
Priya closed the folder.
Elena’s anger began to drain, leaving exhaustion behind.
May you like
“I was afraid you would take her,” she said.
He did not deny that he could have tried.
