Chương 6
“My mother called and said Vanessa was vomiting in her room. She said she couldn’t leave because she was with donors.”
“So you went.”
“Yes.”
“You left me drunk in a hotel bar.”
“I thought you were angry and wanted space.”
“You left.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Maybe ninety minutes.”
Rachel’s pulse began hammering.
“And when you came back?”
“You were in bed.”
“Wearing what?”
Ethan looked confused.
“A robe.”
Rachel shut her eyes.
“Did you put me there?”
“No.”
Silence.
Daniel stood again.
This time Rachel did not tell him to sit.
Ethan said, “I thought you went upstairs yourself.”
Rachel opened her eyes.
“My dress was folded on the chair.”
“I know.”
“My shoes were beside the bed.”
“Yes.”
“Who undressed me?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan’s face changed as the implication finally reached him.
Rachel saw it happen.
“No,” he said.
“Who had access to the suite?”
“Rachel.”
“Who?”
“I had a key. You had a key.”
“Margaret?”
He said nothing.
Rachel knew.
“Margaret had one.”
“She booked the room.”
“Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I don’t.”
Rachel threw the plastic water cup.
Not at him.
At the wall beside him.
It struck, spilled, and rolled across the floor.
Everyone froze.
Rachel’s chest heaved.
Marisol appeared in the doorway.
Rachel looked at her.
“I’m sorry.”
Marisol surveyed the cup.
“I have seen worse.”
She disappeared again.
Ethan looked at Rachel.
“I am sorry.”
Rachel wiped her face.
“You don’t get to apologize yet.”
He nodded.
“You cheated on me.”
“Yes.”
“You lied for nine months.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Vanessa had been pregnant with your child.”
“Yes.”
“You found out yesterday your mother believed one of my babies might not be yours.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of staying here, you drove to Baltimore.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked toward the window.
“My biological father was at the hotel in Napa.”
Rachel stopped moving.
Daniel swore.
Ethan’s voice became quieter.
“I found his name in the papers from my mother’s safe. Thomas Vale. I searched him. He lives outside Baltimore. When I showed him a picture of my mother, he recognized her.”
Rachel stared.
“He knew her?”
“He knew all of us.”
“What does that mean?”
“He said my mother contacted him last spring.”
The room felt suddenly too cold.
“Why?”
Ethan looked at the bassinets.
“She wanted a grandchild who was biologically connected to him.”
Nobody spoke.
Rachel could hear the heater turning on beneath the window.
Daniel said, “That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does to her.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Ethan looked at him.
“My father—the man who raised me—had a hereditary condition. That’s why my sister was sick. My mother knew before they had children that there was a risk.”
Rachel remembered Margaret’s obsession with medical screening.
Her comments during the pregnancy.
Healthy bloodline.
Strong Bennett genes.
Words Rachel once dismissed as rich-family arrogance.
Ethan continued.
“She had an affair with Thomas. I was the result.”
Rachel rubbed her arms.
“And she wanted your child to be connected to your biological father.”
“Yes.”
“So she—what?”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
Rachel had seen him cry twice in eleven years.
At his father’s funeral.
And when their first pregnancy ended at nine weeks.
Now he looked frightened to finish the sentence.
“She asked Thomas to come to Napa.”
Rachel stared at him.
Daniel moved closer to the bed.
Ethan whispered, “He says he never touched you.”
Rachel shut her eyes.
The relief came too quickly.
Then stopped.
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel opened her eyes.
“You drove all the way to Baltimore to ask whether your biological father raped me?”
Ethan flinched at the word.
“Yes.”
“And you left me alone to do it.”
“I thought if I called him, he’d lie.”
“So you needed to see his face.”
“Yes.”
Rachel looked away.
Part of her understood.
That was the worst part.
She understood why he had gone.
The need to stand in front of a man and know.
But understanding was not forgiveness.
“You should have taken me with you.”
“You’d just given birth.”
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“You should have stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Stop agreeing with me.”
Ethan looked down.
For a minute nobody spoke.
Then one of the babies began to fuss.
Rachel turned immediately.
The smaller one.
Baby B.
He made a soft, angry squeak beneath his blanket.
Rachel pushed herself upright.
Daniel moved toward the bassinet.
“I’ve got him.”
“No.”
Rachel swung her legs toward the side of the bed.
Pain stopped her.
Ethan stood instinctively.
Rachel looked at him.
He froze.
Daniel lifted Baby B carefully.
He had no idea what he was doing.
Rachel would have laughed if she could.
“Support his head.”
“I am.”
“You are holding him like a football.”
“I don’t watch football.”
“That is somehow worse.”
Daniel adjusted the baby.
The crying stopped.
For thirty seconds, all four adults stared at a newborn who weighed just under six pounds and had no idea that his existence had detonated a family.
Daniel looked down at him.
“He’s ugly.”
Rachel laughed.
Ethan made a sound that was almost a laugh too.
Then Rachel remembered why they were there.
The moment vanished.
She looked at Ethan.
“Which baby did your mother try to take?”
Ethan’s eyes shifted toward Daniel’s arms.
Baby B.
Rachel felt something cold settle inside her.
“What did she know about him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ethan.”
“I don’t.”
Rachel lifted the DNA report.
“Baby A matches you.”
Ethan stared.
“Baby B doesn’t.”
His face went white.
Daniel looked down at the baby he was holding.
Rachel watched Ethan.
He looked devastated.
Not relieved.
That mattered.
She hated that it mattered.
“Your mother tried to take Baby B,” Rachel said.
Ethan slowly sat.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“She knew he wasn’t mine.”
“Yes.”
“But why would she want him if he wasn’t mine?”
Rachel had been asking herself the same question.
Then Vanessa’s words returned.
May you like
You promised nobody would ever know which baby was his.
Which baby was his.
