Chapter 4: Two Women, One Lie
“Elena, this is Paige,” Daniel said.
“Gavin has left the hospital.”
“Is the baby safe?” she asked.
I looked down at my daughter.
“She’s safe.
Why did Gavin say I wanted your son?”
“Because he needs us afraid of each other.”
A child spoke faintly in the background.
“Mom, is Dad coming?”
“Go finish your breakfast, Noah,” Elena said.
A door closed before she continued.
“Paige, Gavin told me you were an investor who became obsessed with him.”
My mother gripped the bed rail.
“She’s his wife.”
“I know that now,” Elena said.
“But for five years, he told Noah and me that his work required him to travel.”
“Every other week,” I said.
“Yes.”
The same calendar opened between us without anyone touching it.
“Elena, did he live with you in St.
Paul?”
“Tuesday through Thursday, and every second weekend.
What did he tell you?”
“Chicago office.
Client meetings.”
Elena released a broken breath.
“Then neither of us had a husband.
We had a schedule.”
Forty minutes later, she stood in my doorway holding a blue folder.
She was pale, with tired eyes and one hand wrapped around the strap of her handbag.
“I wasn’t sure you would let me in,” she said.
“You came anyway.”
“For our children.”
She approached slowly and looked at the baby.
“She’s beautiful.”
My throat tightened.
“He wouldn’t hold her.”
Elena set down her folder and pulled the blanket gently over my daughter’s shoulder.
“That is his failure.
It will never be hers.”
The kindness in her voice broke something open in me.
Tears slid down my face, and Elena reached for the tissues before my mother could move.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“So am I.”
“No.
Don’t apologize to me.
He did this.”
Noah waited in the family lounge with Elena’s sister, so Elena sat beside my bed and opened the folder.
“These are statements from an account Gavin thinks I don’t know about,” she said.
“He has been sending money to a company called Northline Consulting.”
Daniel examined the pages.
“Northline received transfers from Paige’s family business.”
I looked at the repeated payments.
“Gavin approved those vendors.
He said they provided compliance services.”
“Elena,” Daniel asked, “who owns Northline?”
“On paper, I do.”
She slid a registration form across the table.
“That isn’t my signature.”
Mom pointed to the address.
“This is Gavin’s private mailbox.”
Elena unlocked her phone.
“I also have this.”
Gavin’s recorded voice filled the room.
“Once Paige’s inheritance clears, I’ll move the company shares and leave.
She won’t have enough control left to challenge anything.”
A chair scraped behind us.
Gavin stood in the doorway with a hospital administrator.
“That recording is illegal,” he said.
Elena rose.
“You told them I was unstable, too, didn’t you?”
“You need to come home.”
“I am home.
You’re the one who never was.”
The administrator cleared her throat.
“Mr.
Mercer has filed a concern about the newborn’s safety.
A hospital social worker must speak with Mrs.
Mercer before discharge.”
Gavin looked directly at me.
“You wanted a fight, Paige.
May you like
Now you have one.”
The social worker stepped into the room carrying a form with my name already printed across the top.
