Chương 5
“Where is she?”
“Police station.”
“Good.”
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“You cannot attack a sixty-seven-year-old woman.”
“I wasn’t going to attack her.”
“You have that face.”
“What face?”
“The face from sophomore year.”
“That kid deserved it.”
“He took your parking space.”
“Repeatedly.”
Rachel laughed.
Then cried.
It happened without warning.
One second she was laughing and the next her face folded, her shoulders shaking.
Daniel froze.
He had never been good with tears.
After their mother died, when Rachel was nineteen and Daniel seventeen, he had spent three days repairing a broken lawnmower because he did not know how to sit in the kitchen with her grief.
Now he looked around as if a wrench might help.
Then he leaned over and hugged her.
Carefully.
Rachel pressed her face against his shirt.
“I don’t know whose baby is whose.”
Daniel’s hand stopped on her back.
“What?”
She pulled away.
“One is Ethan’s.”
“Okay.”
“One isn’t.”
Daniel blinked.
Rachel watched confusion become discomfort become a brother’s instinctive calculation.
“No,” she said.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was not.”
“You were about to ask.”
Daniel sat.
Rachel stared at him.
“I never cheated on Ethan.”
“I know.”
“You thought it.”
“For half a second.”
“Great.”
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel looked away.
Daniel rubbed his face.
“So how does that happen?”
“I don’t know.”
She told him about Napa.
The missing hours.
The robe.
Ethan’s strange behavior.
By the end, Daniel’s expression had changed.
“Rachel.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean—”
“I know what it sounds like.”
“Did you ever get sick after that trip?”
She frowned.
“What?”
“Anything weird?”
“I had a headache.”
“Bruises?”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Mom used to get bruises when she took Ambien.”
Rachel almost snapped that their mother had been prescribed Ambien years ago and this had nothing to do with anything.
Then a detail surfaced.
Her thigh.
She had found a bruise high on her left thigh the morning after the hotel bar.
She had assumed she walked into furniture.
“I had one.”
Daniel sat very still.
Rachel hated his face.
She looked down at her hands.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Turn this into something before we know.”
He swallowed.
“Okay.”
But he was thinking it.
So was she.
At 3:15, Ethan arrived.
Rachel heard his voice in the corridor before she saw him.
Security stopped him outside.
Daniel stood immediately.
Rachel said, “Sit down.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No.”
“Sit.”
He sat, but only because Marisol entered at the same moment and gave him a look.
Ethan appeared at the doorway after Rachel approved his entry.
He looked terrible.
His dark hair was disordered. His expensive coat had a coffee stain near one pocket. He had not shaved.
For one irrational second, Rachel was relieved to see him.
That hurt more than anger.
Ethan stopped when he saw her bruise.
His mouth opened.
Rachel said, “Don’t.”
He looked at Daniel.
Daniel smiled without warmth.
“Hey.”
Ethan stayed near the door.
“Can we talk alone?”
“No.”
“Rachel.”
“Anything you say to me, you can say in front of my brother.”
Ethan looked toward the bassinets.
His face changed.
He had not seen the babies since the previous afternoon.
He took one step toward them.
Rachel’s voice sharpened.
“Stay there.”
He stopped.
The hurt in his face was real.
Rachel almost hated him for that too.
“Okay.”
She lifted the folder.
“Which one did you know about?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Daniel muttered, “Jesus Christ.”
Rachel waited.
Ethan opened his eyes.
“I didn’t know the paternity result.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked toward the babies.
“My mother told me there was a possibility.”
“A possibility of what?”
“That one baby might not be mine.”
Rachel gripped the folder.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“After I gave birth?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she panicked.”
“About what?”
Ethan looked down.
Rachel recognized his habit.
When Ethan lied, he maintained eye contact.
When he was ashamed, he looked at the floor.
“What happened in Napa?”
He sat slowly in the chair by the wall.
Daniel leaned forward.
Rachel said, “Answer me.”
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I don’t know everything.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
“My mother arranged the trip.”
Rachel frowned.
“No. You arranged it.”
“I thought I did.”
“What does that mean?”
“She suggested the resort. She paid for the suite through the company travel account. She arranged the dinner reservation.”
Rachel stared at him.
“Why?”
“I didn’t know.”
“That’s becoming your favorite sentence.”
“I’m trying to tell you the truth.”
“Try harder.”
Ethan flinched.
Daniel almost smiled.
Ethan continued.
“That night, after we argued, you went downstairs.”
“I remember.”
“I got a call from my mother. She told me Vanessa was sick.”
Rachel looked at him.
“Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you care?”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“Because Vanessa was pregnant.”
“I knew she was pregnant.”
“With my child.”
Daniel stood.
Ethan moved back in his chair.
“Sit down,” Rachel said.
Daniel looked at her.
“Sit.”
He sat.
Rachel could barely feel her fingers.
“You got Vanessa pregnant.”
“Yes.”
The word landed quietly.
No music.
No shouting.
Just yes.
Rachel stared at Ethan.
He began talking.
“It happened once.”
She laughed.
He stopped.
“Sorry,” Rachel said. “That sentence is apparently mandatory.”
“I’m not trying to minimize it.”
“You just did.”
“I know.”
“When?”
“May.”
A month before Napa.
Rachel looked toward the babies.
“So Vanessa’s baby should have been born before mine.”
“Yes.”
“Where is her baby?”
Ethan’s throat moved.
“I don’t know.”
Rachel stared at him.
Daniel said, “What the hell does that mean?”
Ethan looked at Rachel.
“She told me she lost the pregnancy.”
“When?”
“June. After Napa.”
Rachel felt the room narrow.
“And you believed her?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see a doctor?”
“No.”
“Hospital record?”
“No.”
“She just told you?”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked at the bassinets again.
Two babies.
Two fathers.
Vanessa pregnant by Ethan.
One infant not Ethan’s.
The pieces did not fit.
Not yet.
May you like
“What happened that night?” Rachel asked.
Ethan pressed his palms together.
