Chapter 9: The Café
I had been there to meet a friend who had canceled twenty minutes earlier.
I had stayed because the coffee was good and Owen didn't need collecting for another hour.
I had my phone on the table and a book I wasn't really reading.
Daniel Marsh was younger than I had imagined.
Mid-thirties.
Well-dressed in a way that suggested he thought about it.
He had the kind of face that was probably considered handsome and knew it.
He sat down across from me like we had an appointment.
"I know who you are," he said.
"You're Ryan's twin sister.
You were the surrogate."
I looked at him steadily.
"You need to leave."
"I just want five minutes."
"You're subject to a no-contact order regarding my brother and his wife.
I'm going to call my solicitor and then I'm going to call the police, and I'm going to do both of those things in the next thirty seconds unless you stand up and walk out of here."
Something flickered across his face.
He hadn't expected that.
"I'm not here to cause trouble."
"You're sitting across from me uninvited in a public café after being served a harassment notice.
You are trouble." I picked up my phone.
"I'm calling now."
"Melissa lied to Ryan." He said it fast, leaning forward.
"Not about the affair.
About when it ended."
My thumb was over Grace's number.
I didn't press it yet.
"She told Ryan it ended before they reconciled," Daniel said.
"That's not true.
It ended three weeks before the IVF retrieval."
I kept my face very still.
"Three weeks," he repeated.
"Not four months before.
Three weeks.
The timing matters, and she knows it matters, and she lied about it."
"The paternity test—"
"Tests can be wrong.
Labs make errors.
I have a right to know if that child is mine."
"You have no rights here.
You have a legal notice telling you to stay away from this family, and you're currently violating it by speaking to me."
"I'm not speaking to Ryan or Melissa."
"You're speaking to their family.
Same thing." I pressed call.
Grace picked up on the second ring.
"Sara."
"I'm at the Meridian Café on Church Street.
Daniel Marsh is sitting across from me.
I'm putting you on speaker."
A brief pause.
"Mr.
Marsh." Grace's voice was clear and unhurried.
"You are currently in violation of the no-contact order issued three days ago.
This call is being recorded.
I am advising you to leave immediately.
Any further contact with any member of this family will result in immediate police involvement and an emergency injunction application.
Do you understand?"
Daniel looked at the phone on the table between us.
His jaw tightened.
"The timing," he said, one more time, quietly.
Directly at me.
"Ask her about the timing."
Then he stood up, straightened his jacket, and walked out.
Grace was still on the line.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes." My voice was steady.
My hands were not.
"Did you get all of that?"
"Every word.
I'm filing for the emergency injunction this afternoon.
Sara — what he said about the timing.
Do you know if there's anything in it?"
I looked at the door he had walked out of.
"I don't know," I said honestly.
"You need to ask Melissa."
"I know."
I sat in the café for a few minutes after I hung up.
The coffee had gone cold.
Outside, the street went about its business, ordinary and indifferent.
Then I called my brother's wife.
"Melissa," I said when she answered.
"I need you to tell me the exact date the relationship with Daniel ended.
Not the version you told Ryan.
May you like
The real date."
The silence on the other end lasted just long enough to tell me everything.
