Claire quickly wiped beneath one eye.
“I’m not sad, sweetheart.”
Leo looked at Alexander suspiciously.
“Did he make you sad?”
Alexander could barely breathe.
Claire knelt.
“No. Mommy is okay.”
Leo continued staring at Alexander.
Then the boy did something unexpected.
He walked forward.
Alexander remained perfectly still.
Leo stopped two feet away.
“You have a big car.”
Alexander glanced outside at the Rolls-Royce.
“Yes.”
“Is it yours?”
“Yes.”
Leo considered this.
“What kind?”
Alexander almost smiled.
“A Rolls-Royce.”
Leo looked unimpressed.
“My truck is faster.”
Claire covered her mouth.
A small laugh escaped.
Alexander felt something warm and painful move through his chest.
“I believe you.”
Leo held up the toy truck.
“It has turbo.”
“That’s difficult to compete with.”
Leo nodded solemnly.
Then he returned to the back room.
For several seconds, neither Alexander nor Claire spoke.
Finally Claire exhaled.
“You should go.”
Alexander looked at her.
“Will you let me come back?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll wait.”
“That has never been your strongest skill.”
He almost deserved the faint smile that followed.
Almost.
Alexander reached the door.
“Claire.”
She looked at him.
“There’s something else I need to say.”
Her expression became guarded.
He forced himself not to hide behind pride.
“I was wrong.”
Claire stared at him.
“About what?”
“Everything.”
A long silence passed.
Then she said, “That’s a very large word.”
“I have a lot to answer for.”
“Yes.”
“I will.”
She did not respond.
Alexander left.
The cold evening air struck his face.
He stood beside his car but did not get inside.
Through the window, he saw Claire kneel between the twins.
Lily climbed into her arms.
Leo held up his toy truck.
Their little world closed around her.
A world that had existed perfectly well without him.
Alexander looked at the photograph in his hand.
For the first time, it did not feel like evidence.
It felt like a door.
One he had no right to force open.
The following morning, Alexander canceled every meeting before noon.
His assistant, Daniel, entered his office looking concerned.
“You have the Hargrove acquisition at nine.”
“Reschedule it.”
“The board presentation?”
“Move it.”
Daniel hesitated.
Alexander looked up.
“What?”
“There’s something else.”
Daniel placed a folder on the desk.
Alexander stared at it.
“What is that?”
“When you asked me to find Claire, I reviewed public records.”
Alexander’s attention sharpened.
“And?”
Daniel opened the folder.
“Her flower shop wasn’t the first place she went after the divorce.”
Alexander looked at the page.
There was an address in Wisconsin.
A medical clinic.
He frowned.
“What is this?”
Daniel hesitated.
“She spent nearly four months there.”
Alexander felt an unexpected chill.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel slid another page across the desk.
“But the clinic specializes in high-risk pregnancies.”
Alexander’s throat tightened.
“Were there complications?”
“I couldn’t find out.”
Alexander stood.
Then Daniel added quietly, “There’s one more thing.”
Alexander froze.
Daniel placed a second photograph on the desk.
It showed Claire leaving the clinic two and a half years earlier.
She was visibly pregnant.
Walking beside her was an older man Alexander recognized immediately.
Dr. Samuel Bennett.
The fertility specialist who had treated Alexander and Claire during their marriage.
Alexander stared at the photograph.
“Why was Bennett with her?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Alexander’s gaze shifted to the date printed beneath the image.
It was four months after their divorce.
And suddenly a question occurred to him that he had been too stunned to ask the night before.
If Alexander had deliberately made pregnancy unlikely during their marriage...
How, exactly, had Claire become pregnant?
