Chapter 4: What His Father Knew
The drive to the hospital took twenty-two minutes.
Adrian drove.
Clara sat in the back with Mia in her lap and Daniel pressed against her side, asleep before they reached the highway.
Adrian hadn't changed out of his wedding suit.
He hadn't thought about it.
His phone rang at the first traffic light.
His father's name on the screen.
He let it ring.
It rang again at the second light.
He turned the phone face-down on the passenger seat.
"He's going to tell you I'm lying," Clara said from the back seat.
"I know."
"He's going to say Renata was unstable.
That she made things up.
That the children aren't—"
"Clara." Adrian glanced at her in the mirror.
"I saw the boy's face."
She nodded.
Didn't say anything else.
The hospital was a low gray building on the edge of the city.
Adrian parked and came around to help with Mia.
Clara handed her over without hesitation, which told him something.
She had been carrying this alone for a long time.
They took the elevator to the fourth floor.
A nurse at the desk looked up.
"We're here for Renata Voss," Adrian said.
The nurse checked her screen.
"Are you family?"
Adrian paused for just a moment.
"Yes."
Room 412 was at the end of the corridor.
The door was half open.
Adrian stopped outside it and looked through the gap.
Renata was smaller than he remembered.
She was lying with her eyes closed, one arm connected to a drip line, her dark hair loose against the pillow.
She looked like someone who had been fighting something for a long time and was very tired.
He pushed the door open.
Her eyes opened immediately.
She found his face before she found anything else in the room.
"Adrian."
Her voice was rough.
But she said his name like she had been practicing it.
"I'm here," he said.
She looked at Clara.
Then at the children.
Something in her face broke open and put itself back together in the same second.
"You came," she said to Clara.
"I told you I would."
Renata looked back at Adrian.
"I didn't want you to find out this way.
I kept thinking I had more time.
I kept thinking I would—" She stopped.
Swallowed.
"I wrote you letters.
I never sent them."
"Why not?"
"Because your father told me if I contacted you, he would make sure I lost the children." Her voice didn't shake when she said it.
It was worse that it didn't shake.
"He said he had lawyers.
He said I had nothing.
And I believed him."
Adrian pulled a chair to the side of the bed and sat down.
"Tell me everything."
She told him.
It took a long time.
Clara took the children to the family waiting room at the end of the hall so Renata could speak freely.
The light through the window moved from afternoon to early evening while Renata talked.
She had met his father first — not Adrian.
His father had introduced them, deliberately, at a charity event four years ago.
She hadn't known then that his father had already decided she was useful.
She was educated, presentable, quiet.
The kind of woman who could be managed.
"He wanted me close to you," she said.
"I didn't understand why at first.
Then I found out about the trust."
"What trust?"
Renata looked at him carefully.
"Your grandfather's estate.
The full inheritance only transfers if you marry before you turn thirty-five and have a biological heir.
Did you know that?"
Adrian's expression didn't change.
"I knew about the marriage clause.
I didn't know about the heir clause."
"Your father knew.
He's known for years.
And he knew your thirty-fifth birthday is in four months."
The room was very quiet.
"He introduced us because he thought I would marry you quickly and give him a grandchild he could use to control the trust." Renata's hand moved on the blanket.
"When I found out, I ended it.
I told him I wouldn't be part of it.
That's when he told you I was gone."
"He told me you d*ed."
"I know." She looked at the ceiling.
"I found out two weeks later that I was pregnant with Daniel."
Adrian stood up.
He walked to the window.
Outside, a parking attendant was directing a car into a space, completely unaware of anything.
"He knew about Daniel?"
"He found out when Daniel was eight months old.
He came to my apartment.
He offered me money to stay away from you permanently and raise Daniel quietly.
He said if I refused, he would petition for custody and I would never see my son again."
Adrian turned around.
"And Mia?"
Renata's voice dropped.
"He doesn't know about Mia."
The door to the room opened.
Not Clara.
Adrian's father stood in the doorway in his dress shirt, tie loosened, face composed in the particular way it got when he was calculating something.
May you like
"Adrian," he said.
"I think it's time we spoke privately."
