Chương 7
Another silence.
“What do you mean, trapped?”
“Road closure.”
“Is Lily with you?”
“Yes.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s asleep.”
Mara exhaled.
Then Elena said, “She met Adrian.”
The line became so quiet that for a second they thought the call had dropped.
Mara spoke again.
“What did she say?”
Elena shut her eyes.
“Everything.”
Adrian turned away.
Mara did not ask what everything meant.
She knew.
“Put him on.”
Elena hesitated.
“Mara.”
“Put him on.”
She held out the phone.
Adrian stared at it before taking it.
For a man who had closed nine-figure negotiations without notes, he suddenly seemed to have forgotten language.
“Mara.”
The voice on the other end changed his face.
“Hello, Adrian.”
Six years fell into the room.
Elena watched him grip the phone.
Vanessa looked toward the empty place on her finger.
Adrian said, “Is Lily mine?”
Mara laughed softly.
It was exhausted and unbelieving.
“You haven’t changed much.”
His eyes closed.
“Is she?”
“Yes.”
He stopped breathing for a moment.
Vanessa turned away.
Elena sat down.
Marcus and Kline both looked at the floor.
Adrian opened his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Mara said nothing.
He heard the question as she must have heard it.
He lowered his voice.
“I’m sorry. I know you tried.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t receive it.”
“I know that now.”
He looked at the archive terminal.
“What does that mean?”
“Leonard called me when Lily was four months old.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“What?”
“He said you knew.”
Elena looked up sharply.
Mara continued.
“He told me you had received the paternity notice. He said you wanted no contact and that if I pursued it publicly, your attorneys would challenge custody, my employment history, my finances, everything.”
Adrian gripped the phone harder.
“I never—”
“I know.”
He stopped.
Mara’s breathing was audible.
“I didn’t know then.”
“What changed?”
“Three months ago, Elena found something.”
Everyone looked at her.
Elena’s face tightened.
Adrian said, “What?”
Mara answered.
“A copy of your original security directive.”
Adrian looked at Elena.
She did not meet his eyes.
“What directive?”
“The one that removed my building access. It was narrow. Temporary. It didn’t say anything about termination, blacklisting, legal settlement, or no contact.”
Adrian stared at the table.
Mara said, “For years I thought you had ordered all of it.”
“And when you found out I didn’t?”
“I didn’t suddenly decide you were innocent.”
His jaw tightened.
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Yes, you are. Maybe not with words.”
Vanessa looked at him.
Adrian said nothing.
Mara’s voice softened.
“You told Leonard to get me out of your buildings because you were angry. You signed papers without asking what they did. You never checked whether I was okay. He used your power, Adrian. But you handed it to him.”
Adrian lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
Mara was silent.
Maybe she had not expected that.
He continued.
“I didn’t know five hours ago.”
“But now?”
“Yes.”
Lily coughed in the next room.
Mara’s voice changed immediately.
“Is she sick?”
Elena called out, “She’s fine.”
“She had cocoa.”
“With milk?”
Elena looked at the mug.
“Yes.”
“Too much?”
“Probably.”
Mara sighed.
Lily called sleepily, “Mommy?”
Elena went to her.
For the next several minutes, the billionaire, his fiancée, two security guards, and the woman he had once planned to marry listened while Mara Hart reminded her five-year-old daughter over speakerphone that no, thunder could not get through special mountain glass, yes, she still had to brush her teeth even in an emergency, and no, kicking people’s things was not acceptable simply because she had been telling the truth.
Lily said, “But he was going to give the lady a ring.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Mara was quiet for a beat.
“I know.”
“She already had one.”
“I know that too.”
“Why do grown-ups need so many rings?”
Vanessa put both hands over her face.
Elena began laughing.
She tried to stop and couldn’t.
Even Adrian made a sound that might have been the beginning of one.
Lily looked around, offended.
“I’m serious.”
Mara said, “Go back to sleep.”
After Lily settled again, the laughter vanished almost as quickly as it had come.
Adrian took the phone into the main room.
“Mara, Leonard knew about Lily.”
“Yes.”
“He threatened you.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have proof?”
“I have the letter he sent.”
“Why didn’t you use it?”
“For what?”
He had no answer.
“To sue you? With what money? To go to the press and have your lawyers tell everyone I was the unstable former employee who slept with the founder? To start a custody fight with a man who could spend more on one hearing than I made in a year?”
Adrian sat.
Mara continued.
“I made a choice.”
“To hide my daughter from me.”
“Yes.”
Her answer came without apology.
He flinched.
Mara heard it anyway.
“You want me to feel guilty.”
“I want you to understand what that cost.”
“You think I don’t?”
“I don’t know what you think.”
“That makes two of us.”
They were silent.
Then Mara said, “I was afraid of you.”
Adrian looked at Lily sleeping beyond the doorway.
“Were?”
“Don’t make me answer that tonight.”
He nodded even though she could not see him.
“All right.”
Mara took a breath.
“Elena said there may be security footage.”
“There is.”
“Do not watch it without me.”
Adrian looked at Elena.
She watched him closely.
He said, “I won’t.”
Mara paused.
“Thank you.”
It was the first thing she had thanked him for in six years.
It did not feel like progress.
It felt like a measure of how low the ground had fallen.
By sunrise, the storm had weakened.
The sky over the eastern mountains turned from black to iron gray. Snow moved in long sheets across the glass, but the warning beacons outside became visible again.
Lily woke hungry and asked if billionaires had pancakes.
Adrian said he did not know.
She stared at him.
“You’re one.”
May you like
“I know.”
“So you should know.”
