Chương 5
“That’s inconvenient.”
“Very.”
A legal-aid attorney named Mara Singh called that evening.
Mara had the brisk voice of someone who spent her working life explaining unpleasant choices without pretending they were better than they were.
She told Emily the hospital worksheet did not establish Adrian as Noah’s legal father.
If Emily and Adrian wanted to establish paternity voluntarily, they could complete the appropriate acknowledgment under state procedure if both were eligible and understood what they were signing. Emily could also request genetic testing first.
“You are not required to decide while recovering from delivery,” Mara said.
“Good.”
“You also mentioned a protective order involving Mr. Hayes.”
“Yes.”
“The assault six days ago matters. So does today’s hospital incident. The investigation records may matter too, depending on what they show and how they were obtained.”
“They also show Adrian tracked me.”
“Yes.”
“Could he get in trouble?”
“Potentially.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Professionally?”
“Possibly. I need to review the material before giving you a meaningful answer.”
“What if using it hurts him?”
Mara was quiet for a beat.
“That is not the first question I’d advise you to ask.”
Emily opened her eyes.
“What is?”
“Does it help keep you and your child safe?”
The answer was annoyingly practical.
“Yes.”
“Then we start there.”
Two days later, Mara received Adrian’s file.
He did not sanitize it.
That mattered.
Emily wished it didn’t.
The file contained the original service agreement Derek had signed with the investigation firm, authorizing address research for what he described as a civil property dispute.
Then came Derek’s emails.
Did she have men visiting?
Was she sleeping anywhere else?
Could Adrian photograph her vehicle overnight?
Could he tell whether she was pregnant?
That last question had been sent months before Emily actually was.
She stared at it until the words blurred.
Derek had not been looking for stolen property.
He had been looking for ownership.
The file also contained Adrian’s responses.
At first they were professional.
Scope does not include personal surveillance.
Need documentation regarding alleged property.
Cannot access financial accounts without lawful authority.
Then the tone changed.
Your request exceeds agreement.
I’m terminating the assignment.
Finally:
I found no reliable current address.
That was the lie.
Adrian had found her address six days earlier.
His handwritten notes were included too.
Emily recognized the writing immediately.
The same hand that had written his name beside FATHER:.
Subject appears frightened by unknown caller in parking lot. No contact initiated.
Blue sedan, possible secondary investigator, plate photographed.
D. Hayes drove past building 2x, did not stop.
Assignment terminated.
Client continuing surveillance independently.
And then, three days later:
Spoke to E.C. at café. Not planned.
Emily read that line twice.
Below it, another.
Should disclose connection. Did not.
She closed the file.
Mara waited.
Emily asked, “Why would he include that?”
“Because I asked for everything.”
“He could’ve removed it.”
“Yes.”
“Would you have known?”
“Probably not.”
Emily looked toward the bedroom where Noah was sleeping.
“Does that make him good?”
“No.”
The answer came so fast that Emily almost smiled.
Mara leaned back.
“It makes this piece of evidence more credible because it contains information against his own interest. It does not erase what he did.”
Emily appreciated that.
She had become exhausted by people trying to sort men into boxes.
Dangerous.
Protective.
Good.
Bad.
Derek had once made her breakfast every Sunday.
Adrian had once lied to her every day for months.
Facts were less obedient than labels.
“What happens if I use this?”
“We ask the court for a protective order against Derek. We provide the assault report, hospital footage if obtainable through proper process, your messages, his repeated contact, and portions of this file.”
“And Adrian?”
“I would expect Derek’s attorney to attack his credibility and potentially raise his conduct.”
“Could Derek sue him?”
“He can try.”
“Could his license be reviewed?”
“Yes.”
Emily stared at the pages.
Mara said, “You are allowed to care what happens to him.”
Emily’s eyes lifted.
“You are also allowed not to protect him from consequences he created.”
That night Noah refused to sleep between one and four in the morning.
Emily walked the narrow hallway with him against her shoulder while rain tapped softly against the windows.
At two fifteen, the woman in the next room came out wearing slippers and holding a bottle.
“First one?” she asked.
Emily nodded.
“Mine too.”
The woman looked at Noah.
“He got that angry little old-man face?”
“Yes.”
“They all do.”
She went back to her room.
Emily kept walking.
Her mind drifted toward Adrian because exhaustion weakened her defenses.
She remembered the first time he had held a friend’s baby at a barbecue. He looked terrified and pretended not to be.
She remembered telling him she was pregnant.
He had sat on the kitchen floor after she threw the dish towel at him.
“You can sit in chairs,” she had said.
“I’m aware.”
“You look pale.”
“I’m having an experience.”
She had laughed.
Then he had reached for her hand.
That memory remained real.
It did not become fake because his name was on Derek’s invoice.
That was what made the betrayal difficult.
Three days after Noah’s birth, a package arrived for Mara.
Inside was a signed affidavit from Adrian.
He admitted accepting Derek’s assignment.
He admitted locating Emily.
He admitted falsely reporting that he could not locate her.
He admitted continuing to monitor Derek after ending the contract.
He admitted failing to disclose the circumstances when he later began a personal relationship with Emily.
He did not say he had done it for love.
He did not call himself her protector.
He described dates.
Actions.
Mistakes.
Mara read it and said, “He had counsel when he signed this.”
“How do you know?”
“Because no competent investigator writes an affidavit like this without understanding what it can do to him.”
Emily looked at the final page.
Adrian’s signature.
Same handwriting.
Different pen.
Blue ink.
May you like
For some reason that bothered her.
“What happens now?”
