Chương 3
“How?”
“The donor dinner ended twenty minutes ago. Someone saw you come back inside carrying a child.”
Adrian’s expression changed in a way Elena remembered from magazine photographs: less human, more finished. “Clear the family waiting area. No statements.”
“I can’t clear a hospital floor.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know what you usually mean.”
Marcus’s tone remained respectful, but Adrian looked at him sharply.
Elena stood. “Nobody is clearing anything. This is not your building.”
“My foundation paid for this floor.”
“And there it is.”
“I was not threatening you.”
“You don’t have to. Everything around you does it for you.”
A nurse looked in through the glass. Elena lowered her voice.
Adrian rubbed a hand across his mouth. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Noah made a small sound. Both of them turned toward him.
He opened his eyes slowly. For several seconds he seemed unable to place the room. Then he saw Elena and relaxed a little.
“Did I miss the song?” he whispered.
Elena leaned close. “The rehearsal?”
He nodded.
“You scared everybody, so they canceled Broadway.”
“That’s not true.”
“No. But Mr. Diaz says you can have your solo back when you stop trying to make dramatic exits.”
Noah’s mouth moved at one corner.
Then he saw Adrian.
The half smile disappeared. His gaze lowered to the locket against Adrian’s chest.
“You found him,” Noah said.
Elena stopped breathing.
Adrian pulled the chair nearer but did not sit until Noah gave a small nod.
“You were looking for me?” Adrian asked.
Noah studied him with the serious attention he usually reserved for unfamiliar dogs.
“Mom said you were busy.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Adrian’s voice softened. “She wasn’t wrong.”
“She said you lived in New York.”
“I do.”
“We live two hours away.”
“I know where Fairmont is.”
“Have you been there?”
“Once.”
Noah looked disappointed by the answer. “There’s a train museum.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“You went to the wrong part.”
Adrian glanced at Elena, and for one brief second they were not standing beside a child who might die. They were two adults being corrected by a six-year-old.
Noah lifted his hand. The IV tugged against the tape.
Elena caught it gently. “Don’t pull.”
“I want mine.”
She placed his locket in his palm.
He held it next to Adrian’s. The compass designs matched. The narrow lines through their centers appeared to meet when the silver circles touched, though Elena knew the lockets had never actually formed one object. Adrian had bought them from a small jeweler near the lake and called them halves because he had been twenty-nine and in love and unembarrassed by the phrase.
Noah’s fingers brushed Adrian’s.
Adrian did not move.
“Are you my dad?” Noah asked.
Elena felt the question pass through the room like an electrical current.
Adrian looked at her, but Noah was watching him.
“I might be,” he said. “We need a test to be sure.”
“Mom’s sure.”
Elena stared at Noah. “I told you I believed—”
“You said there wasn’t anybody else.”
Adrian’s eyes closed briefly.
Noah turned the locket over. “Does that mean you left?”
The bluntness of it struck harder than accusation.
Adrian leaned forward, elbows on his knees. His shirt remained open at the collar, revealing the edge of a tattoo Elena had never seen before.
“I didn’t know about you,” he said.
“Mom said she told you.”
“She tried. I didn’t get what she sent.”
“Because you were busy?”
“No.” Adrian glanced at Elena again. “Because someone may have kept it from me.”
Noah considered this. “Who?”
“I’m going to find out.”
“Are you good at finding things?”
Marcus made a quiet sound from the doorway that might have been a cough.
Adrian looked back at him. “Apparently not.”
Noah’s eyes began to close. “Mom loses her phone when it’s in her hand.”
“Thank you,” Elena said.
“I can help you find things,” Noah murmured to Adrian. “When I go home.”
His fingers slackened around the locket.
Adrian stayed beside the bed until Noah fell asleep.
At two in the morning, Dr. Shah returned with the pediatric electrophysiologist, Dr. Daniel Kim. He spoke carefully, drawing a simple diagram on the back of a printed medication sheet. Noah’s heart appeared structurally normal on the first images, which was good. The rhythm disturbance was not. They suspected an inherited electrical disorder, though other explanations remained possible.
“We’ll monitor him continuously,” Dr. Kim said. “If he has another dangerous episode despite medication, we may need to discuss an implanted device. I don’t want you deciding anything tonight. I want you to understand why we’re asking about family history.”
Elena’s attention snagged on implanted device.
“He’s six.”
“I know.”
“He’s small.”
“I know that too.”
Adrian stood near the window with his arms folded. “My sister’s records are coming.”
“That will help,” Dr. Kim said. “Your blood sample will help. We’ll test Noah first, but comparing family results can clarify things.”
“Can paternity be tested from the same sample?” Adrian asked.
Elena looked at him.
Dr. Kim removed his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his coat. “That is a separate consent and a separate legal matter. The hospital can arrange accredited testing, but not under the guise of medical diagnostics.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that.”
“People suggest stranger things at two in the morning.”
The doctor put his glasses back on. “Decide when you are both rested enough to understand what the result changes and what it does not.”
After he left, Elena sat on the couch and tried to remove her wet shoes without waking Noah. One heel had rubbed her skin raw. She pressed a tissue against the blister.
Adrian watched her.
“What?”
“You drove to Fairmont this morning?”
“I live there.”
“You said the ambulance brought you from the school.”
May you like
“Yes.”
“And you planned to take a rideshare back to your car after they discharged him.”
