Adrian had lied to both of us differently.
He had told me Vanessa was meaningless until he needed her to hurt me.
He had told Vanessa I was powerless until my daughter’s existence made him abandon his wedding ceremony and race to Brooklyn.
Neither story could survive in the same room.
A nurse appeared briefly at the doorway, saw the tension, and asked whether I wanted visitors removed.
I looked at Adrian.
“Not yet.”
He hated that answer because it made clear whose room this was.
He moved closer to my bed and lowered his voice.
“Emma, whatever you think you’re doing, think carefully.
A paternity fight gets ugly.”
There it was again.
The quiet threat.
Once, I would have heard it as a warning about what he could do to me.
Now I heard it as evidence of what he feared I could prove.
“I’m not fighting you,” I said.
“You asked for a test.
We’ll follow the legal process.”
“And if she’s mine?”
I looked at my daughter.
“Then you will have obligations you cannot negotiate away by insulting her mother.”
Vanessa sat down suddenly in the chair beside the window, her wedding dress spilling across the floor.
Adrian turned on her.
“We need to leave.”
She didn’t move.
“Our guests are waiting.”
She laughed once, without humor.
“Our guests watched you run out of the church after your ex-wife said she had a baby.”
His face flushed.
“Vanessa.”
“What exactly are we going back to?”
He reached for her hand.
She pulled it away.
That was when his phone began vibrating.
He looked at the screen.
I couldn’t see the message, and I didn’t need to.
His reaction told me enough.
Another vibration came immediately after the first.
Then another.
Vanessa stood.
“Is that corporate counsel?”
Adrian slipped the phone into his pocket.
She stared at him.
“It is.”
He said nothing.
“The transfer is frozen, isn’t it?”
“Temporarily.”
The word came through clenched teeth.
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“You promised me those shares after the wedding.”
“And you’ll get them.”
“You don’t know that.”
“This is paperwork.”
I couldn’t help it.
“Details,” I said.
Adrian looked at me with pure fury.
