Chương 6
“She told me she was considering terminating the pregnancy.”
Elena covered Lily’s ears.
Too late again.
Richard’s face went white.
Vanessa continued, “I assumed—”
“You assumed?”
“I had no reason to believe—”
“You had every reason to tell me.”
“And lose everything?”
The hallway went still.
There it was.
Not protection.
Not concern.
Not Richard’s career.
Vanessa closed her eyes.
For the first time, she seemed to hear herself.
Richard said, “Everything?”
Vanessa opened her eyes.
“I loved you.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only answer that matters.”
“No.”
“You were going to go back to her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I knew you.”
“You knew what you wanted.”
Vanessa’s chin trembled.
Only once.
“I had spent years standing beside you. Your father trusted me. Your board trusted me. I helped keep that company alive while you were running after Rebecca every weekend like some college kid.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“She wasn’t a distraction.”
“To you, maybe.”
“To me.”
“Yes, Richard. To you. Everything was always to you.”
The words came faster now.
Elena had never heard Vanessa lose rhythm like this.
“You wanted Rebecca when you wanted romance. You wanted the company when you wanted power. You wanted me when you needed someone who could survive your father. Then you wanted respectability when the magazines started asking why a thirty-one-year-old CEO was still sleeping on a couch in his office.”
Richard looked away.
Some of it had landed.
Vanessa saw that and continued.
“I did horrible things for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“No. That was the luxury you gave yourself.”
The sentence hung between them.
Richard said nothing.
Vanessa turned toward Lily.
Elena pulled the child closer.
Vanessa’s face softened in a way that was almost worse than anger.
“I should not have touched your bear.”
Lily stared at her.
Vanessa swallowed.
“That was wrong.”
Lily whispered, “You tried to make Elena take me away.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vanessa’s composure broke just enough for the truth to show.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of me?”
Vanessa looked at Richard.
“No.”
Lily followed her gaze.
“Of him?”
“Of what he would do when he knew.”
Richard’s mouth hardened.
Vanessa said, “And now I know.”
She turned and walked toward the front doors.
Richard did not stop her.
At the threshold, she paused.
Without looking back, she said, “The blue shoe box won’t help you as much as you think.”
Then she left.
The black doors closed behind her.
For several seconds nobody moved.
Lily looked at Richard.
“Did she love you?”
Richard sat on the bottom stair.
Elena had never seen him sit there.
It looked wrong, like seeing a judge on a grocery-store floor.
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
He rubbed his palms together.
“Yes.”
“Do you now?”
Richard looked toward the closed doors.
“I don’t know what I feel right now.”
Lily nodded.
Then she asked, “Did my mom want me?”
Richard’s face crumpled.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Elena sat beside Lily on the stair.
Richard leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“I don’t know everything your mother felt when she was pregnant.”
“But Vanessa said—”
“Adults can be scared and still love someone.”
Lily looked at Teddy.
“My mom loved me.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know.”
“No.”
Richard glanced at the bear.
“But she kept something I gave her for twelve years and gave it to you when you were born. She raised you. She told you about me when she was dying. She asked your aunt to protect you.”
He paused.
“I think those things mean something.”
Lily pressed her face into the bear.
Richard looked at Elena.
Neither of them spoke.
That evening, Claire called again.
This time Richard took the call alone in his office.
He closed the door.
Ten minutes later he opened it and asked Elena to join him.
Claire was still on speaker.
Her voice sounded exhausted.
“She’s asleep?” she asked.
“Yes,” Elena said.
“Good.”
Richard stood near the window with his arms crossed.
Claire said, “The box exists.”
Richard closed his eyes briefly.
“What’s in it?”
“Letters. Copies of emails. A notebook. A few photographs. Some medical paperwork.”
“Why didn’t Rebecca contact me directly?”
“She tried.”
Richard turned.
“When?”
“More than once.”
“How?”
“Letters. Calls. Email.”
“I never received anything.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Vanessa responded.”
Richard became motionless.
Claire continued.
“Not every time. The first email came back from your account. Rebecca thought it was you.”
“What did it say?”
“I don’t remember exactly.”
“You have a copy?”
“Yes.”
Richard pressed his fingers to his forehead.
“Claire.”
“She told Rebecca you wanted nothing to do with the pregnancy.”
“In my name?”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at him.
Richard stared at the floor.
Claire said, “Rebecca believed it for almost two years.”
“What changed?”
“She ran into your old friend Michael Grant.”
Richard looked up.
“At a conference?”
“A bookstore.”
Despite everything, Claire sounded irritated.
“She was buying a cookbook. He recognized her.”
Richard sat down.
“Michael knew I was looking for her.”
“Exactly.”
“So Rebecca learned I had been looking.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t she contact me?”
Claire was silent.
Richard waited.
When she spoke again, her anger had faded.
“She was humiliated.”
Richard frowned.
“She had spent two years believing you rejected her and Lily. She had moved apartments twice because she couldn’t afford the rent. She was working nights. Lily was sick all the time. Rebecca had built a life around the idea that you had made a choice.”
“But she learned I hadn’t.”
“Eventually.”
“Then why—”
“Because by then you were engaged to Vanessa.”
Richard leaned back.
Claire continued.
“And because Rebecca didn’t trust any of you.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It made sense to her.”
“I had the right to know my daughter.”
“Yes.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?”
Claire inhaled slowly.
“Because Rebecca asked me not to.”
Richard stared at the phone.
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was angry.”
“At me?”
May you like
“At all of you.”
“You knew Vanessa had lied.”
