Chương 4
Daniel stared at the letters on the table.
Elena tapped one finger against them.
“Which was interesting.”
Victoria stood very slowly.
“Who signed the new response?”
“Elena.”
Everyone turned.
Robert Carter stood in the doorway.
He had not raised his voice.
He did not need to.
At sixty-eight, Daniel’s father possessed the irritating physical durability of men who treated aging as a scheduling problem. His hair had gone silver, but his posture remained straight. He wore dark trousers, a charcoal sweater, and the expression he used when an employee had brought him news he considered both serious and badly managed.
Behind him stood Harold Wynn.
Elena’s hands went cold.
Four years vanished.
She was back in a law office holding a paper cup of water while Harold told her that Daniel had made his position clear.
She stood so abruptly the coffee table shook.
Daniel moved between her and the doorway.
Not dramatically.
Just one step.
Robert noticed.
“Daniel.”
“What are you doing here?”
“This is my hotel.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
“Leave.”
Robert glanced at the sleeping children.
His face changed almost imperceptibly.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Daniel saw it.
So did Victoria.
Harold Wynn looked at the floor.
Daniel turned toward him.
“How long have you known?”
Harold adjusted his glasses.
“Daniel, this isn’t the place.”
“How long?”
Robert said, “Not in front of the children.”
Elena laughed.
“You didn’t mind doing it behind them.”
Daniel did not look away from Harold.
“Did you send those letters?”
Harold’s silence answered first.
Robert stepped into the room.
“I authorized communications designed to protect you during a period when you were in no condition to make rational decisions.”
Daniel looked at him.
“What period?”
“You had just taken over the western division. We were negotiating the Bancroft acquisition. You were drinking too much, sleeping four hours a night, and involved with a woman you barely understood.”
Elena went still.
Daniel said, “She was pregnant.”
“So she said.”
Daniel’s face changed.
Robert saw it and corrected himself.
“So we were told.”
“No,” Elena said. “You knew.”
Robert looked at her for the first time.
Something like discomfort entered his expression.
Not guilt.
Not yet.
“You had no proof of paternity.”
“I never asked you for anything.”
“You arrived in Daniel’s life while he was being discussed as the next chief executive of a public-facing family company.”
“I was dating him before the promotion.”
“I’m aware.”
“You had me investigated.”
“Yes.”
Daniel turned sharply.
Robert remained calm.
“I would do it again.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Daniel stared at his father.
“You told me she miscarried.”
Robert’s jaw tightened.
“I told you the pregnancy was no longer an issue.”
“You said she lost the baby.”
“I told you what I believed you needed to hear.”
For the first time since the slap, Daniel moved quickly.
He crossed the space between them.
Robert did not step back.
Daniel stopped inches from his father.
“What did you do?”
Robert’s eyes held his.
“What you were incapable of doing.”
Harold said quietly, “Robert.”
“No. We’re past euphemisms now.”
Robert looked at his son.
“You were going to marry a woman you had known less than two years because she was pregnant.”
“I loved her.”
“You were terrified.”
“Both can be true.”
“You were not thinking.”
“And you were?”
“I prevented a catastrophic decision.”
Daniel’s breathing became shallow.
Behind him, Theo stirred.
Elena immediately raised a finger to her lips.
Daniel saw the movement.
His anger did not disappear.
It changed shape.
He stepped away from his father.
Harold exhaled.
Robert glanced at the children again.
“Are they yours?”
Daniel stared at him.
“Do you actually not know?”
“I know only what Elena claimed.”
Elena reached for the documents.
Harold looked at her.
“Ms. Ruiz.”
She froze.
Harold’s voice was softer than she remembered.
“I owe you an apology.”
Robert gave him a hard look.
Harold ignored it.
“I should not have sent those letters.”
Elena said, “But you did.”
“Yes.”
“Did Daniel authorize them?”
Harold’s eyes moved toward Daniel.
“No.”
The room went silent.
Daniel seemed to become physically smaller without moving.
Elena’s hand slipped from the papers.
She looked at him.
For four years she had hated him with a precision that had been useful.
Daniel had abandoned them.
Daniel had chosen money.
Daniel had signed the check.
Daniel had told an attorney to warn her away.
That hatred had helped at three in the morning when two babies had fevers and the third would not stop screaming. It had helped when she returned to work before she was ready. It had helped when strangers called her “supermom” and she wanted to throw something because being super had never been the plan.
Now Harold Wynn had removed one of the central supports of that hatred with a single word.
No.
Elena sat down.
Daniel looked at her.
“I didn’t know.”
She rubbed both hands over her face.
“I heard you.”
“I would have come.”
She dropped her hands.
“Would you?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came.
That silence mattered.
Robert looked at his son.
Daniel turned away from Elena.
Four years earlier, after his father told him the pregnancy was over, Daniel had called Elena twice.
The first call went directly to voicemail.
The second returned an automated message that the number was no longer in service.
He had asked Claire to reach Elena.
Claire told him Elena had requested no further contact.
He had believed her.
Not immediately.
For three nights he slept badly. He drove past Elena’s apartment once and saw dark windows. He did not stop.
He told himself stopping would disrespect her wishes.
The truth was uglier.
He was afraid she would confirm what his father had said.
He was afraid she would say the pregnancy was gone and that she hated him.
Then work swallowed a month.
Pride swallowed another.
By spring, the pain had hardened into a story he could live with.
Elena had left.
May you like
The baby was gone.
There was nothing to fix.
