Chapter 8
“She knows I’m looking for her.”
“Apparently.”
“She contacted you after six years and told you not to trust me.”
“She did not tell me not to trust you.”
“What did she say?”
I looked at him.
“She said I deserve the truth.”
Something shifted in his eyes.
Not anger.
Guilt.
It vanished almost immediately.
I saw it anyway.
“What truth, Adrian?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You always look slightly to the left when you lie to me.”
His eyes snapped back to mine.
“You remember that?”
“I remember everything I wish I didn’t.”
That silenced him.
The drive to my hotel took forty minutes.
Adrian followed in another vehicle because I refused to share a car with him.
Marcus rode in the front of mine while Noah and Lily sat beside me in the back.
For the first ten minutes, neither child spoke.
Then Lily whispered, “Is he really our daddy?”
I looked through the tinted rear window at the black car following us.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t we know?”
There are questions adults can spend years preparing to answer and still fail when they finally arrive.
I touched her hair.
“Because your dad and I stopped being together before I knew you were coming.”
Noah frowned.
“But he didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Did you not tell him?”
The directness of children is merciless.
“No.”
“Why?”
Marcus became very interested in the road.
I stared down at my hands.
“Because I was hurt and scared, and I thought staying away was safer.”
Noah absorbed that silently.
He did not say I had been right.
He did not say I had been wrong.
Somehow his silence was worse.
When we arrived at the hotel, Adrian’s people checked the lobby, elevator, and hallway before allowing us upstairs.
I hated every second of it.
I hated even more that the sight of them working with quiet efficiency made me feel safer.
My suite had two bedrooms and a sitting room overlooking the river.
I expected Adrian to enter with us.
He remained at the doorway.
“I’m across the hall.”
I crossed my arms.
“You rented the room across the hall?”
“The entire floor.”
I stared at him.
“Of course you did.”
He almost smiled.
Then Noah appeared beside me.
Adrian’s expression changed instantly.
My son looked up at him.
“Are you rich?”
I closed my eyes.
Adrian seemed startled.
“Yes.”
“How rich?”