Chương 2
Now she touched Evelyn’s bare ring finger and seemed unable to speak.
“I need five minutes,” Evelyn said.
Caroline nodded too fast.
“Of course.”
“Somewhere private.”
“The bridal room.”
“No.”
Evelyn could already imagine it: garment bags, makeup brushes, the handwritten note Adrian had sent that morning. One more hour, Mrs. Vale.
She felt briefly nauseated.
“Anywhere else.”
Nora appeared beside them, still holding Adrian’s phone.
“The venue office,” she said. “Back hallway. No one will follow.”
“What about her?”
Evelyn pointed toward the screen.
Claire was still connected.
Nora lowered her voice.
“I think you should decide that.”
Evelyn looked at Adrian.
He had not left the altar. His best man, Caleb, stood near him now, speaking in a low voice. Adrian was listening without responding.
He looked like a man waiting for a doctor to give him a diagnosis he already knew.
“Bring the phone,” Evelyn said.
The venue office smelled like printer paper, coffee, and someone’s vanilla hand lotion.
It had no windows. Evelyn appreciated that.
Nora locked the door.
Caroline and Martin stayed outside after Evelyn asked them to. Her father objected. Her mother pulled him away before the objection became an argument.
Evelyn sat in the chair behind a cluttered desk. The satin skirt of her dress spread around her legs in expensive folds that suddenly seemed absurd.
Nora placed the phone on the desk.
Claire’s hospital room filled the screen.
For a moment, neither woman spoke.
Claire looked younger than thirty-four and older than fifty at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” Evelyn said.
Claire’s eyebrows drew together.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Claire stared at her.
Evelyn understood immediately that the answer was not enough.
“No,” she said again. “I did not know he was married. I didn’t know about you. I didn’t know about the baby.”
Claire looked down at the newborn.
“He said he was in Philadelphia.”
Evelyn closed her eyes for one second.
Adrian had told her Philadelphia too.
Not today. Other times.
Client meetings. Quarterly reviews. A restructuring project that always seemed to require hotels with bad Wi-Fi and unpredictable schedules.
“Where are you?” Evelyn asked.
“North Valley Medical.”
“Are you alone?”
“My sister went home to shower.”
Claire stopped.
The baby made a faint squeaking sound.
“They discharged him yesterday morning,” she said.
“Him?”
“The baby.”
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“Me, technically. Then my blood pressure went up again and they kept us another night. Adrian was supposed to be here.”
Evelyn stared at the phone.
“When was your son born?”
“Thursday.”
It was Saturday.
Adrian had spent Thursday evening at the rehearsal dinner.
He had arrived twenty minutes late and kissed Evelyn on the forehead, apologizing because a client call had run over. She remembered the faint antiseptic smell on his shirt. She had asked whether the hotel gym was using a new cleaner.
He had laughed.
Why did that memory hurt more than the obvious things?
“What’s his name?” Evelyn asked.
Claire hesitated.
“Owen.”
“That’s a good name.”
“I don’t know why we’re talking about his name.”
“I don’t either.”
Claire almost smiled.
It disappeared before it fully formed.
A knock sounded at the office door.
“Evelyn,” Adrian said from the hallway.
Every muscle in her back tightened.
Nora moved toward the door.
“Don’t open it.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
Adrian knocked again.
“Claire?”
Claire froze.
Evelyn saw her hand tighten around the baby’s blanket.
Adrian’s voice came through the door.
“I know you can hear me. Please. This is not what it looks like.”
Nora turned slowly toward Evelyn.
Evelyn stared at the door.
Then, despite herself, she laughed once.
It was a dry, ugly sound.
Claire heard it.
A second later, she laughed too.
The laugh startled the baby, and Claire immediately whispered, “Sorry, sorry,” while rocking him.
Adrian knocked harder.
“Evelyn.”
She stood.
Her dress caught beneath the chair wheel.
For one stupid second she could not move.
Nora bent down, freed the hem, and neither of them commented on it.
Evelyn crossed the office.
She opened the door three inches.
Adrian stood there with his tie loosened and the torn edge of his lapel exposed. Without the boutonniere, the damage looked strangely small.
Caleb stood six feet behind him.
So did Martin.
Caroline had one hand pressed against her husband’s chest.
“Give me the phone,” Adrian said.
“No.”
“Evelyn, please listen.”
“To which part?”
His eyes flicked toward the room behind her.
“Not here.”
“You had two years to pick a better place.”
His face tightened.
“I can explain.”
“Good. Explain one thing.”
“All right.”
“Are you legally married to Claire?”
Adrian inhaled.
That was enough.
“Say it.”
“Yes.”
Behind him, Martin muttered something Evelyn could not hear.
She kept looking at Adrian.
“Is Owen your son?”
“Yes.”
“How old is he?”
Adrian’s eyes shifted.
“Three days.”
“Thursday.”
“Yes.”
“You went from the hospital to our rehearsal dinner.”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Evelyn stared at him.
He seemed to hear himself.
“I mean after the reception. Before we left.”
“For our honeymoon.”
“Yes.”
“You were going to tell me after the wedding.”
“I was going to tell you everything.”
She nodded slowly.
“That makes sense.”
“Evelyn—”
“It actually does. Because if you told me before, I might have done something inconvenient.”
“That’s not fair.”
Nora’s eyebrows rose.
Even Caleb looked at Adrian then.
Evelyn did not raise her voice.
“Go downstairs.”
“We need to talk.”
“We are not talking while your wife is holding your three-day-old son in a hospital room.”
“Claire and I are separated.”
From inside the office, Claire said, “No, we’re not.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The hallway went silent.
Claire’s voice came through the phone speaker again.
“We argued,” she said. “You slept in the guest room for six weeks. That is not a separation.”
Adrian looked at the floor.
Evelyn opened the door wider.
“Go downstairs.”
“Can I at least talk to Claire?”
May you like
“No.”
“You can’t keep my phone.”
