Chương 6
“I’m not angry because they exist.”
“I know.”
“Don’t say that yet.”
He nodded.
She rubbed her arms through the navy coat.
“I’m angry because I don’t know what else in our life exists because you decided not to look too closely.”
Daniel sat on the window ledge.
“I don’t know either.”
Victoria’s eyes filled, but she blinked the moisture away.
“Good.”
He looked up.
“At least that’s true.”
At seven fifteen in the morning, the storm eased enough for the hotel to begin clearing the access road.
At seven thirty, Elena called her attorney.
At seven forty-two, Daniel called a law firm that had never worked for his father.
At eight ten, Victoria ordered scrambled eggs.
At eight twelve, Mateo rejected them.
At eight thirteen, Theo ate Mateo’s.
Normal life kept insulting the adults by continuing.
Elena’s attorney, Marisol Kent, arrived by video call on Elena’s phone.
Daniel moved across the room so Elena could speak privately.
Marisol had been representing her for six weeks. She was practical, impatient with dramatic language, and unimpressed by the Carter surname.
When Elena told her what had happened, Marisol was silent for so long Elena checked the screen.
“You slapped him?”
“Yes.”
“In front of hotel cameras?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“That’s all?”
“No. I’m deciding which problem to dislike first.”
Elena looked toward Daniel.
“What do I do?”
“You leave when the road is safe. You do not sign anything. You do not accept cash. You do not agree to private testing arranged by his father. You do not post anything online. You do not threaten anyone. And please, for the love of God, don’t hit anybody else.”
“I know.”
Marisol’s expression softened.
“How are the kids?”
“Confused.”
“And you?”
Elena looked away.
“I don’t know anymore.”
“That’s allowed.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is. What isn’t allowed is pretending confusion is a legal strategy.”
Elena almost laughed.
Marisol continued.
“We proceed with the filing. Daniel gets counsel. We arrange parentage testing through an agreed process. We preserve the old letters. And Elena?”
“Yes.”
“If Daniel truly never knew, that changes some things.”
Elena swallowed.
“I know.”
“It does not change all things.”
“I know that too.”
After the call, Elena found Daniel waiting near the fountain.
He had changed into a gray sweater and dark trousers. Without the suit, he looked younger.
That irritated her.
He should not have been allowed to look younger.
He should have looked exactly four years older than the man she remembered.
“My attorney wants testing,” she said.
“So does mine.”
“You have one already?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you do.”
Daniel ignored that.
“I want it done in whatever way your attorney considers acceptable.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“And after?”
“If they’re mine—”
“They are.”
He stopped.
“When the result says they’re mine, I want to support them.”
“Money.”
“Among other things.”
“You don’t know them.”
“No.”
“You don’t get weekends because a lab says you share DNA.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to show up with toys and have them call you Dad.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because I know.”
“No. You understand the sentence. That’s not the same thing.”
Daniel looked at her for several seconds.
“You’re right.”
She hated that answer.
“Stop agreeing with me.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I can try being wrong if it helps.”
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
She immediately looked furious with herself.
Daniel smiled once.
Then both of them remembered where they were.
The road opened before noon.
Elena bundled the children into their coats.
Daniel stood six feet away.
He wanted to help with the stroller.
He did not ask.
Grace was the last one strapped in.
She held Rabbit by its damaged ear.
She looked at Daniel’s cheek.
“Does it still hurt?”
He crouched, careful to remain outside the stroller.
“A little.”
“My mom said sorry.”
“She did.”
“Are you mad?”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“No.”
Grace nodded.
Then she held the rabbit toward him.
“You can touch Rabbit.”
Elena inhaled.
Daniel looked at her before reaching.
She did not stop him.
His fingers touched the faded ear.
11.18.
For a moment his face folded inward.
Grace pulled the rabbit back.
“You have to be gentle.”
“I know.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Daniel almost smiled.
“Sorry.”
Grace hugged the toy.
When Elena pushed the stroller toward the doors, Daniel did not follow.
That was the first correct decision he made.
The parentage report arrived nineteen days later.
Daniel opened it alone in his Manhattan apartment.
He and Victoria had been staying in separate rooms since returning from the hotel. Not separated, exactly. Neither of them had used that word.
They had simply stopped pretending nothing had shifted.
The report was four pages.
Daniel read the conclusion once.
Then again.
Theo Ruiz.
Grace Ruiz.
Mateo Ruiz.
All three were his biological children.
He sat at the kitchen counter until the motion-activated lights dimmed around him.
His phone remained in his hand.
There were calls he could make.
His attorney.
Elena.
Victoria.
His father.
Instead he opened the photo Elena had reluctantly texted him two days earlier.
The children stood in front of their preschool wearing paper crowns.
Theo’s had slipped over one eye.
Grace held Rabbit.
Mateo was looking away from the camera.
Daniel enlarged the picture.
He searched their faces for himself, then despised himself for doing it.
The point was not whether Theo’s eyes resembled his.
The point was that Theo had four years of mornings, fevers, bruises, jokes, dislikes, songs, habits, and fears that Daniel did not know.
Blood did not give those back.
He called Elena.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“I got it.”
“So did I.”
A child shouted something in the background.
Elena said, “No, shoes stay on until—Mateo. Shoes.”
Daniel waited.
A door slammed.
Elena came back.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Don’t apologize for that.”
Silence.
Daniel said, “They’re mine.”
“Yes.”
May you like
He heard her breathe.
For years she had wanted him to say it.
