Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW I WAS PREGNANT
Serena did not answer Gabriel.
That was the first mistake she made.
The second was stepping backward.
Gabriel Cross noticed both.
I had watched men lie to him before.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
Police officers who pretended their hands were clean.
Gabriel never needed shouting to frighten people. He simply became quieter until the person in front of him understood silence was no longer safety.
“How long have you known?” he repeated.
Serena’s fingers tightened around her champagne glass.
“Gabriel, this is not the place.”
His face did not move.
“That was not my question.”
Around us, conversations had died one by one.
Two hundred guests were pretending not to listen.
They were failing.
My middle son, Oliver, pressed against my side.
My oldest, James, stared directly at Gabriel with the unsettling seriousness all three boys had inherited from him.
My youngest, Theo, remained half-hidden behind my dress.
I wanted to leave.
Everything inside me screamed to take my children and walk out.
But Serena’s fear had stopped me.
Five years ago, I believed she had won.
Now I was beginning to understand the game might have started long before I knew I was playing.
Gabriel stood.
“You knew Claire was pregnant.”
Serena swallowed.
“I suspected.”
My blood went cold.
“When?”
No answer.
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“When?”
“The week she left.”
I stared.
“You saw me?”
Serena looked at me reluctantly.
“No.”
“Then how?”
“I heard Dr. Lewis’s office call.”
My stomach turned.
Dr. Lewis had been my physician for years.
The first office I called after two days of nausea and dizziness.
I had not known I was pregnant then.
I had only made an appointment.
“How did you hear?”
Serena looked at Gabriel.
He already knew what the answer meant.
“Your private office line.”
I stared at him.
His expression changed.
“Why were you answering calls in my office?”
She looked trapped.
“Because you asked me to help during the transition.”
“What transition?”
“Our divorce,” I whispered.
Serena’s eyes dropped.
Gabriel turned toward me.
“I never asked her to handle personal calls.”
Then his gaze returned to Serena.
“Who did?”
She said nothing.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Serena.”
“Your mother.”
The room disappeared.
I actually laughed once because it was either laugh or scream.
Gabriel’s mother, Vivienne Cross, had hated me from the beginning.
Not openly.
Women like Vivienne never wasted themselves on obvious cruelty.
She smiled while telling me my dress looked “brave.”
She complimented my cooking by saying it was “surprisingly good for someone raised without staff.”
And when Gabriel proposed, she kissed my cheek and whispered, “Men like my son eventually remember what they are.”
I had spent seven years trying to prove her wrong.
“What does my mother have to do with this?” Gabriel asked.
Serena lowered her voice.
“She told me Claire had called the doctor.”
“That does not mean pregnancy.”
“No.”
“So?”
“She asked me to find out.”
My skin crawled.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“And did you?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“A nurse owed someone a favor.”
I stared at her.
“You accessed my medical information?”
Serena’s face tightened.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“It was exactly like that.”
James took my hand.
“Mom?”
I looked down.
“Everything’s okay.”
It wasn’t.
But he was five.
He did not need the adult version of betrayal yet.
Gabriel noticed.
He looked at the boys.
Then at me.
Something in his face softened.
“Claire, I can have them taken somewhere private.”
“No.”
He stopped.
“I mean with you.”
“No.”
“They should not hear this.”
“They shouldn’t have heard any of it.”
Fair.
Pain crossed his face.
Then he nodded.
“Your call.”
That sentence surprised me.
Five years ago, Gabriel made decisions.
He rarely asked.
Maybe time had changed him.
Or maybe three sons had changed him in thirty seconds.
I crouched in front of the boys.
“Remember Aunt Maria?”
They nodded.
My sister was across the ballroom.
I waved.
She saw my face and came immediately.
“Take them to the hotel suite.”
James frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Mom needs to talk.”
Theo whispered, “With Dad?”
The word hit Gabriel visibly.
“Yes.”
James looked toward him.
“Are you really?”
Gabriel did not move closer.
He stayed exactly where he was, as though even breathing too hard might scare them.
“Yes.”
James studied him.
Then said, “You look like us.”
Gabriel’s mouth trembled.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Maria took them.
Theo kept turning around.
Gabriel watched until the doors closed.
Only then did he turn back to Serena.
“What happened after you learned?”
She looked down.
“I told Vivienne.”
“And me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she told me not to.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
Even Serena understood how bad that sounded.
“She said you were finally free.”
My stomach tightened.
“She said Claire had trapped you once with marriage and would use a baby to do it again.”
Gabriel went completely still.
“I never said Claire trapped me.”
“No.”
Serena whispered.
“She did.”
He took a breath.
“Did my mother know there were three?”
“Eventually.”
I covered my mouth.
“Eventually?”
Serena looked at me.
“There were ultrasound notes.”
My skin turned cold.
“How far?”
“Twelve weeks.”
I almost couldn’t stand.
She had known before I had even finished processing the diagnosis.
Triplets.
High-risk pregnancy.
Fear.
Excitement.
And Vivienne Cross had known.
“What did she do?” Gabriel asked.
Serena’s eyes filled.
“She contacted Claire’s attorney.”
I stared.
“My attorney?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel Marks?”
“Yes.”
I remembered Daniel.
Calm.
Competent.
The man who urged me to accept the divorce settlement quickly.
The man who warned me Gabriel’s organization was dangerous and said disappearing completely might be best for the children if I was pregnant.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Serena nodded weakly.
“Vivienne paid him.”
Gabriel’s entire expression emptied.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Serena.”
“Two hundred thousand.”
I felt sick.
Gabriel turned toward me.
“I didn’t know.”
I believed him.
That was the worst part.
Five years of anger had been easier when he was simply the villain.
Serena continued.
“Daniel convinced Claire the divorce settlement would be withdrawn if she disclosed the pregnancy before finalization.”
I stared at her.
“He said Gabriel would fight custody.”
“Yes.”
“And he said if I wanted the children safe, I should leave New York.”
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
Gabriel looked like he might kill someone.
“Where is Marks?”
“Florida.”
“I want him found.”
His security chief, Luca, had appeared quietly near the wall.
He nodded once and walked away.
Serena stepped toward Gabriel.
“You need to understand.”
“No.”
“You were done with the marriage.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I filed for divorce.”
“Yes.”
“That does not mean I would abandon my sons.”
Silence.
I should have felt vindicated.
Instead, the word filed hurt.
Because the biggest truth remained.
He had still chosen Serena.
He had still kissed her in that office.
He had still ended our marriage.
I crossed my arms.
“Why were you sitting on his desk?”
Serena froze.
Gabriel looked at me.
I continued.
“The night I saw you.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You saw us?”
“Yes.”
For five years, that moment had lived in my head.
Serena between his knees.
His hand at her waist.
The kiss.
Gabriel looked shocked.
“You were there.”
“I brought your medication.”
He closed his eyes.
“Claire.”
“Don’t.”
“What you saw—”
“You kissed her.”
“Yes.”
The word hurt anyway.
“But—”
“No but.”
Serena started crying.
“I kissed him first.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He didn’t exactly run.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“No.”
Honest.
That mattered more than excuses.
“I didn’t.”
Silence.
“I had been angry for months. We were fighting constantly. I thought you had stopped loving me.”
“That justified cheating?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He swallowed.
“No.”
Serena looked at the floor.
“I thought once he kissed me back, it was over.”
“And then?”
“He ended things with me the next morning.”
My head snapped up.
“What?”
Gabriel nodded once.
“I told her it was a mistake.”
My mind could not process it.
“You divorced me three days later.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His face hardened with old pain.
“Because the morning after Serena kissed me, I received photographs.”
My stomach dropped.
“What photographs?”
“Of you.”
He pulled out his phone.
Old files.
He still had them.
Me entering a hotel with a man.
Nicholas Reed.
My cousin.
I stared.
“That was Nick.”
“I know that now.”
“Now?”
“At the time, the photographs were labeled with another name.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“A federal prosecutor investigating my organization.”
I almost laughed.
“My cousin owns a plumbing company.”
“I know.”
“Who sent them?”
Gabriel looked at Serena.
She whispered, “Vivienne.”
There it was again.
His mother.
Gabriel continued.
“She told me you were cooperating with federal investigators.”
My stomach turned.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
He looked at me for a long moment.
“The same reason you didn’t tell me you saw the kiss.”
That landed.
Painfully.
We had both accepted the worst explanation because trust was already dying.
“I was arrogant,” he said.
“And angry. And I thought asking would make me look weak.”
I looked away.
That sounded exactly like the man I had married.
Serena sat down.
Her face had gone pale.
“There’s more.”
Gabriel’s voice became dangerous again.
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Vivienne didn’t only want Claire gone.”
My pulse shifted.
“What did she want?”
Serena swallowed.
“She wanted control of Cross Holdings.”
Gabriel stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“You had planned to restructure succession.”
His face changed.
I remembered vaguely.
Before the divorce, Gabriel had been preparing to move legitimate Cross businesses into a family trust.
“At the time,” Serena continued, “Claire was the primary beneficiary if anything happened to you.”
I stared.
I had never known.
“And after the divorce?”
“Vivienne became interim beneficiary.”
Gabriel’s expression turned murderous.
“She destroyed my marriage for control?”
“Not only.”
Serena shook her head.
“She was afraid of children.”
Silence.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because once Gabriel had biological heirs, she lost control permanently.”
My stomach turned.
The boys.
My sons.
Gabriel’s face went white.
“What did my mother do after she learned Claire was carrying triplets?”
Serena began crying.
“She said there were ways to solve it.”
Every muscle in my body froze.
“What ways?”
“I refused.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“What did she ask you to do?”
Serena looked at me.
“She wanted me to send someone to Claire.”
The room turned cold.
“To do what?”
“Scare her at first.”
“At first?”
“She mentioned an accident.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped so low I could barely hear him.
“You’re telling me my mother considered killing my pregnant wife.”
Serena shook her head desperately.
“I stopped it.”
“How?”
“I lied.”
She looked at me.
“I told Vivienne Claire miscarried.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She never knew the babies survived.”
Everything rearranged.
Five years.
Vivienne thought my sons were dead.
Serena had hidden them too.
Not only to keep Gabriel from them.
To keep them alive.
Gabriel stared at her.
“You kept my children from me.”
“Yes.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“And I would do it again if the alternative was your mother finding them.”
That was when the ballroom doors opened.
Luca returned.
His face was grim.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“Your mother is downstairs.”
My blood turned cold.
“How?”
“She saw the gala coverage.”
Of course.
Phones had been everywhere.
The dance? Wrong story. Here gala coverage of triplets.
Luca continued.
“She knows about the boys.”
Gabriel looked at me.
Then toward the doors.
For the first time since I had known him, fear entered his eyes.
Not for himself.
May you like
For his sons.
“Lock the building.”
