Chương 6
“Stop.”
“I’m not ordering anything.”
“Good.”
“I’m telling you I looked.”
“Also good to stop doing.”
Daniel’s voice tightened.
“What would you do?”
Michael opened the refrigerator in the garage and stared at a case of sparkling water.
“If you discovered yesterday that you might have a child?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been a father for eight years. Apparently that ruins my ability to imagine your position.”
“I’m not trying to take her.”
“Then stop saying that sentence.”
“What sentence?”
“People say ‘I’m not trying to take her’ when they have started imagining what taking her would look like.”
Daniel was silent.
Michael pulled out a bottle of water.
“I want to know,” Daniel said.
“I know.”
“I barely slept.”
“Neither did Emma.”
That ended the argument.
Daniel said, “Is she okay?”
“No.”
“Can I talk to her?”
“No.”
“Does she hate me?”
“She doesn’t know you well enough to hate you.”
The cruelty of it hit Michael only after he said it.
Daniel absorbed it without answering.
Michael rubbed his forehead.
“Look. I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re not.”
“Correct.”
Daniel gave a humorless breath.
“Fair.”
Michael took a sip.
“What happened between you and Claire?”
“You know.”
“I know the headline.”
Daniel was quiet.
“We were both miserable.”
“That’s convenient.”
“She talked about you the entire night.”
Michael looked at the garage wall.
“I do not need that detail.”
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
“Then use judgment.”
“Okay.”
Another pause.
Daniel said, “She came to my apartment because she said she couldn’t stand being in the house by herself. We drank wine. She was angry at you. I was angry at somebody else. It happened.”
“Somebody else?”
“My father.”
Michael vaguely remembered Daniel’s father dying around that time.
Cancer.
Daniel had been sleeping badly too.
For one instant Michael saw the three of them eight years younger, each stumbling through separate damage with the arrogance of people who believed their private pain excused whatever came next.
He did not like the sympathy that entered him.
“So you both made an adult decision.”
“Yes.”
“And she called you after she found out she was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“You believed her when she said I was the father?”
“I wanted to.”
There it was again.
Wanting used as evidence.
Michael laughed softly.
“We’re all geniuses.”
Daniel said nothing.
Michael lowered his voice.
“I’ll talk to Emma about the test.”
“Thank you.”
“That isn’t a yes.”
“I know.”
“And Claire and I decide how it happens.”
“If Emma agrees.”
Michael stopped.
That answer irritated him less than he wanted it to.
“Yes.”
That afternoon Emma said yes.
Not because Michael persuaded her.
Because she asked whether a test could make everyone stop guessing.
“It can answer the biology question,” Michael said.
“Does it hurt?”
“It can be a cheek swab.”
“No blood?”
“No.”
“How long?”
“A little while for the test. Longer for results.”
“Will Daniel be there?”
“He’d need to give a sample too.”
Emma picked at the cuff of Michael’s sweatshirt, which she had still not returned.
“Can you be there?”
“Yes.”
“Mom?”
“If you want.”
Emma shook her head.
Michael waited.
“She knows already.”
He did not correct her.
Three days later, they met Daniel at a private testing office in a medical complex twenty minutes from their house.
Claire came but waited in the lobby.
Emma asked her to.
Daniel arrived early.
He wore the forest-green sweater from the lodge.
Michael noticed and wondered whether Daniel had done it intentionally so Emma would recognize him in the same clothes.
Then he hated himself for thinking that way.
The technician explained the process simply.
Emma listened.
Daniel listened harder.
Michael sat beside Emma.
The swab lasted less than a minute.
Emma made a face.
“That tastes like paper.”
The technician smiled.
“That’s a new review.”
Daniel laughed.
Emma looked at him.
He stopped immediately.
She said, “It was kind of funny.”
Daniel looked uncertain whether he was allowed to laugh again.
Michael almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Afterward Daniel asked if Emma wanted a hot chocolate.
She looked at Michael.
Michael said, “You decide.”
Emma looked at Daniel.
“From where?”
“There’s a café downstairs.”
“Do they have whipped cream?”
“I can investigate.”
She nodded.
The four adults and one child ended up sitting around a tiny circular table built for two.
Claire drank nothing.
Michael ordered coffee and forgot to drink it.
Daniel bought Emma a hot chocolate with whipped cream and then, after she drank half of it, noticed the lid had a crack and insisted on getting another.
Emma watched him exchange it.
“He worries.”
Michael looked at her.
“Who?”
“Daniel.”
“About cups?”
“Everything.”
Michael considered this.
“You noticed that fast.”
“He kept asking the lady if the test gets lost.”
Michael almost smiled.
“He does like logistics.”
Emma licked whipped cream from the lid.
“Is he nice?”
Michael looked across the café.
Daniel was returning with the replacement drink.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re friends.”
“Were.”
Daniel heard the last word as he sat.
He placed the new cup in front of Emma.
“We are currently under review.”
Emma looked between them.
“Like a restaurant?”
“Exactly,” Daniel said.
Michael took a sip of cold coffee.
“One star.”
Daniel nodded.
“Service issues.”
Emma smiled.
Claire looked down at her hands.
The results came nine days later.
Michael opened the email alone.
He had told himself he would wait for Claire.
He did not.
He sat at his desk at 6:14 in the morning, the house quiet except for the furnace turning on.
The report was written in careful language.
The conclusion was not careful.
Daniel Reeves could not be excluded as Emma’s biological father.
The probability listed below was overwhelming.
Michael read it three times.
Then he closed the laptop.
He stood.
Sat again.
Opened it.
Read the number.
Closed it.
At 6:22 Claire appeared in the doorway wearing her robe.
“You got it.”
He looked at her.
May you like
She did not need to ask.
Her hand went to her mouth.
