Chapter 18
His cane lay on the floor where it had fallen.
Dana bent down and picked it up, but Alexander didn’t reach for it.
“Clara,” he said.
His voice sounded different.
No authority.
No certainty.
Only fear.
I folded my mother’s letter with careful hands.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
The answer came instantly.
I watched him.
“Did you ever suspect?”
His jaw tightened.
“Not what you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking?”
He looked at me for a long second.
Then at the flash drive.
“That I may be your father.”
The room seemed to narrow around us.
I had not wanted anyone to say it aloud.
Once spoken, the possibility became real.
I looked down at my hands.
“Are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Dana quietly turned toward the clerk.
“Could we have a few minutes?”
The clerk hesitated, then nodded.
“I’ll be outside.”
When the door closed, silence settled over the room.
I stood and walked to the window.
Below us, people crossed the courthouse plaza carrying umbrellas. Cars moved through wet streets. Somewhere beyond those buildings, strangers were buying groceries, arguing about lunch, checking their phones, living ordinary lives.
I envied them.
Behind me, Alexander said, “There are things I should have told you sooner.”
I turned.
“Yes.”
His expression tightened.
“I didn’t hide them because I wanted to manipulate you.”
“Then why?”
“Because yesterday you lost your marriage, your home, and nearly every assumption you had about your life. I thought adding more uncertainty would be cruel.”
“You decided what I could handle.”
“Yes.”
The honesty stopped me.
He lowered his eyes.
“And I was wrong.”
I had spent three years with Richard turning every argument into an explanation of why he was right.
Alexander did something Richard almost never had.
He admitted fault without turning it into a performance.
That did not make me trust him.
But it made me listen.
“What happened between you and my mother?” I asked.
Alexander slowly sat.
Dana remained near the door.
“Your mother and I became close,” he said. “Very close.”
“Romantically?”
His eyes met mine.
“For a short time.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Before she married Daniel.”
I stared at him.
“How long before?”
“About a year.”
A strange calm came over me.
Perhaps because the worst possibility was already in the room.
“Did you love her?”
Alexander’s answer took time.
“Yes.”
No dramatic declaration.
No trembling voice.
Just a quiet truth.