Chapter 15 - THE LAST CARD
Daniel went completely still.
I looked at Vanessa’s face, not her hand.
She was watching him carefully.
“How far along?” he asked.
“Seven weeks.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I wanted to surprise you after the honeymoon.”
He sat down hard on the lobby sofa.
For a moment, every business problem disappeared from his face. He had always wanted children. Vanessa knelt in front of him. “We can fix this. All of it. I made mistakes. Your mother made mistakes. You made mistakes. We can start over.”
Part of me wanted to believe her, not for Vanessa, but for Daniel.
He looked at me.
I shook my head once. “This is your life. Not mine.”
That was harder than anything I had ordered that night.
He turned back to Vanessa. “Do you have a doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Have you had an appointment?”
She hesitated.
“Next week.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Then tomorrow, we deal with the company. After that, we talk about us.”
Vanessa stood. Relief flickered across her face.
Too quickly.
Martin, who had been silent, looked at me.
He had noticed it too.
The next morning, I slept three hours.
At eight, I met Daniel, Aaron, and Martin in the hotel conference room.
Before the emergency board meeting, Martin closed the door.
“There’s one more thing.”
Daniel looked exhausted. “Of course there is.”
Martin slid a pharmacy receipt across the table.
It had been found in the document envelope Kyle carried from the office.
Daniel frowned. “What is this?”
“A prescription pickup from last month.”
“For what?”
Martin did not answer.
He placed a second page beside it: a message Kyle had voluntarily shown police after asking for a lawyer.
It was from Vanessa.
If Daniel tries to leave, I have one thing that will stop him.
Daniel read it.
Then looked at the pharmacy receipt again.
May you like
The medication listed was not prenatal.
It was birth control.
