Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WAITING IN NAPA KNEW TOO MUCH
“Claire.”
I heard my own voice change.
Emily heard it too.
She watched me carefully from across the cabin while Maddie pressed both palms against the window and stared at the airport lights.
“How do you know Emily is here?”
Claire was silent.
“Nathan—”
“Answer me.”
“I can explain.”
“Then start.”
“It wasn’t what you think.”
I almost smiled at the irony.
Emily had accused me of using those exact words.
Now Claire was doing it.
“Were you told Emily was pregnant?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
“Were you told she contacted me?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Everything inside me went cold.
“When?”
“About two years ago.”
I closed my eyes.
Two years.
Claire and I had barely started dating then.
“What were you told?”
“That she was threatening the company.”
Emily’s head snapped toward me.
I turned slightly away, but it was too late.
She had heard.
“Who told you that?”
“You already know.”
Richard.
Of course.
The plane stopped at the private terminal.
The attendant opened the cabin door.
Cold San Francisco air swept inside.
Claire spoke quickly.
“Richard said Emily was claiming to have your child and that your attorneys had investigated it.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Did you ask me?”
“Nathan—”
“Did you ask me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard told me you knew.”
I laughed without humor.
“That seems to be Richard’s favorite sentence.”
Emily stood and lifted Maddie.
I reached automatically for the diaper bag.
Emily hesitated.
Then she gave it to me.
It was the first thing involving my daughter she had allowed me to carry.
It shouldn’t have meant anything.
It meant everything.
Claire was still speaking.
“He told me paternity claims happened all the time around wealthy families. He said you wanted it handled quietly.”
“And that made sense to you?”
“I had known you six months, Nathan. Richard had known you since you were born.”
That stopped me.
Because it was reasonable.
Painfully reasonable.
And yet it didn’t make the truth less ugly.
“I need to go.”
“Are you going to the hospital with her?”
“Yes.”
“What about us?”
I looked at the velvet box in my hand.
Then I slid it back into my jacket.
“I don’t know.”
“Nathan.”
“I can’t answer questions about us when I just found out I may have a daughter.”
“You said may.”
“I’m getting a DNA test.”
Claire exhaled slowly.
“Tell me where you are.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I need one night where nobody makes decisions around me.”
Then I ended the call.
Emily pretended not to have listened.
She failed.
“You didn’t have to cancel your proposal.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
I looked at her.
“Because proposing marriage while wondering whether the woman I’m proposing to helped keep my daughter from me would be insane.”
Emily looked away.
We took my car to UCSF Medical Center.
Her sister Hannah had been admitted for spinal surgery after months of worsening nerve compression.
Nothing immediately life-threatening, exactly as Emily had said.
But serious enough that Emily had flown across the country with a toddler because Hannah had no one else.
Maddie fell asleep ten minutes into the drive.
I stared at her reflection in the dark window.
Every few seconds, streetlights painted her face gold and then took it away.
Twenty-two months.
First smile.
First tooth.
First word.
First step.
Birthday.
Christmas.
Fevers.
Nightmares.
All of it had happened without me.
I had been negotiating mergers.
Buying a house in Napa I rarely visited.
Taking Claire to Paris.
Giving interviews about legacy.
I almost choked on that word now.
Legacy.
My legacy had been wearing red sneakers and carrying a stuffed rabbit while I remained completely ignorant of her existence.
At the hospital, Emily stopped me outside the elevator.
“Nathan.”
“What?”
“Hannah doesn’t know you’re here.”
“Okay.”
“She knows Maddie’s father is you.”
My chest tightened.
“Everyone knows except me?”
“That isn’t fair.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Emily’s eyes flashed.
“I told one person. My sister. I was pregnant and alone and terrified. I’m sorry my support system offended you.”
The shame hit immediately.
“You’re right.”
She blinked.
I had apologized too quickly for her to prepare for it.
“I’m angry,” I said. “But I’m angry at the wrong people in the wrong order.”
Some of the tension left her shoulders.
“Thank you.”
The elevator doors opened.
Hannah Carter looked enough like Emily that I recognized her immediately, even pale and exhausted in a hospital bed.
She looked at me.
Then at Emily.
Then back at me.
“Oh, hell.”
Despite everything, I nearly laughed.
Emily sighed.
“He knows.”
Hannah stared.
“Everything?”
“Enough.”
Hannah’s gaze sharpened.
“Do you know about the email?”
“Yes.”
“The letter?”
“Yes.”
“The hospital bill?”
I looked at Emily.
“What hospital bill?”
Emily closed her eyes.
“Hannah.”
“What?”
“What bill?” I asked.
Hannah’s expression changed.
Apparently she had just realized she had opened another door Emily wanted closed.
“When Maddie was born,” she said slowly, “Emily had complications.”
My heart stopped.
“What complications?”
“Postpartum hemorrhage.”
I looked at Emily.
“You almost died?”
“I didn’t almost die.”
Hannah snorted.
“You required two transfusions.”
Emily glared at her.
I sat down because my legs suddenly felt unreliable.
“Why didn’t anyone contact me?”
“We did,” Hannah said.
Emily closed her eyes.
I looked at her sister.
“What do you mean, we?”
“I personally called Cole Meridian.”
“When?”
“The night Maddie was born.”
I leaned forward.
“Who answered?”
“I don’t remember. A man eventually called me back.”
“Richard?”
“No.”
She frowned.
“Someone named Daniel, maybe?”
Daniel Mercer.
Richard’s deputy counsel at the time.
He had left Cole Meridian six months after Maddie was born.
No explanation.
Generous severance.
I remembered Richard telling me Daniel wanted a change.
A pattern was beginning to emerge.
My phone buzzed.
This time it was my chief operating officer.
Then my security director.
Then three missed calls from the board office.
Finally, a text appeared from my current assistant.
NATHAN—RICHARD IS ASKING WHETHER YOU’VE SPOKEN TO EMILY CARTER. HE SAYS IT’S URGENT.
He already knew.
I stood.
Emily watched me.
“What?”
“Richard knows you’re with me.”
“How?”
I didn’t answer.
Because through the narrow glass window in the hospital room door, I saw a familiar blonde woman approaching down the hallway.
Camel coat.
Diamond earrings.
Claire Beaumont.
She had driven all the way from Napa.
She stopped when she saw Emily.
Then she saw the sleeping little girl in Emily’s arms.
The color disappeared from her face.
“Oh my God.”
Maddie woke.
She looked toward me.
Then toward Claire.
Then she reached one tiny hand in my direction.
“Gray-eye man.”
The room went silent.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or break apart.
Claire certainly didn’t laugh.
Her eyes filled.
She looked at Emily.
Then at me.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
I felt Emily tense.
Claire stepped inside and closed the door.
“Two years ago, Richard didn’t just tell me Emily had contacted the company.”
My pulse slowed.
“He showed me the letter.”
Emily went completely still.
“The certified letter?”
Claire nodded.
And suddenly I knew.
This wasn’t a misunderstanding.
May you like
Someone had deliberately placed evidence that I had a daughter into another woman’s hands—
while making certain it never reached mine.
