Chapter 4 - THE BABY HE NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The words on David’s phone seemed to hang in the cold night air.
SHE ALREADY KNOWS ABOUT THE BABY.
Emily looked at me.
I looked at David.
“What baby?”
David didn't answer.
Emily stepped closer.
“Dad, what baby?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
For twenty-eight years, I had known every version of David.
The charming husband.
The ambitious businessman.
The impatient father.
The man who could walk into a room and make everyone listen.
But I had never seen this version.
A frightened man who looked as though the truth itself had become dangerous.
“Get in the car,” he said.
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“Emily.”
“No. You don't get to say something like that and then tell us to wait.”
David looked at me.
“Please.”
I hated that word.
Because it was the same word he had used six months earlier.
Please give me time.
Please don't tell Emily.
Please don't make a decision tonight.
Please trust me.
I had trusted him for twenty-eight years.
That was enough.
“What baby?” I asked.
His eyes closed.
Then he whispered:
“Melissa's.”
Emily inhaled sharply.
My first reaction wasn't jealousy.
It wasn't anger.
It was disbelief.
“Melissa has a baby?”
“She had one.”
The past tense made the air disappear from my lungs.
Emily stared at him.
“Where is the child?”
David didn't answer.
“Dad.”
He finally looked at her.
“The baby was born nine months ago.”
Emily's face changed.
“Nine months?”
“Yes.”
“And you knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew your mistress had a baby for nine months?”
David said nothing.
Emily's voice rose.
“You lied to Mom. You lied to me. You brought this woman to my wedding. And now you're telling us she had a baby?”
“It isn't what you think.”
I almost laughed.
That sentence had become the anthem of his betrayal.
It isn't what you think.
The affair wasn't what I thought.
Melissa wasn't what I thought.
The wedding wasn't what I thought.
The baby wasn't what I thought.
“How convenient,” I said.
David looked at me.
“I never touched that child.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the child isn't mine.”
Emily stared at him.
“Then whose baby is it?”
David looked away.
“I don't know.”
I shook my head.
“You're lying again.”
“No.”
“Then tell us.”
He hesitated.
Finally, he said:
“Your brother's.”
Emily went completely still.
“My brother doesn't exist.”
“He did.”
“Dad.”
“I found out seven years ago.”
I felt something inside me collapse.
Seven years.
He had known for seven years.
Seven years ago, Emily had been twenty-four.
Our marriage had looked normal.
We had celebrated birthdays.
Christmas.
Family vacations.
We had sat across from each other at restaurants and talked about retirement.
And all that time, David had known something about our family that I didn't.
I whispered, “What are you talking about?”
David looked at me.
“Before I met you, there was a child.”
I stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You told me your parents had one child.”
“They did.”
“Then what child?”
His voice dropped.
“Your mother gave birth to a boy before you were born.”
I felt the world tilt.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“She never told me.”
“She was forced not to.”
“By whom?”
David didn't answer.
Emily looked between us.
“What does this have to do with Melissa?”
David swallowed.
“The man I believe is your brother disappeared twenty-three years ago.”
My heart began pounding.
“Disappeared?”
“He was eighteen.”
“And the baby?”
“His.”
Emily stepped back.
“You're saying Melissa's baby belongs to my missing brother?”
David nodded.
“That’s what I believe.”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“You've known about my brother for seven years, and you never told me?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“You don't get to use that word anymore.”
His face tightened.
“I found evidence that your brother was alive.”
“Where?”
“In Chicago.”
Emily whispered, “What happened to him?”
David looked at her.
“He was investigating someone.”
“Who?”
David's silence returned.
I knew before he spoke.
“Your grandfather.”
My blood went cold.
“My grandfather died thirty years ago.”
“Yes.”
“So how could my brother have been investigating him?”
“Because your grandfather left something behind.”
“What?”
David looked at the wedding ring on my finger.
“A trust.”
I frowned.
“What trust?”
“One worth more than two hundred million dollars.”
The number meant nothing to me at first.
Then everything suddenly made sense.
The strange questions.
The hotel.
The photograph.
Melissa.
The missing brother.
The baby.
David wasn't just hiding an affair.
He had been hiding money.
A fortune.
A family secret.
And possibly a person.
Emily whispered, “Where is my uncle now?”
David looked toward the dark road.
“I don't know.”
“You said Melissa knows.”
“She knows where he was.”
“That's different.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you bring her here?”
David hesitated.
“Because she agreed to help me find him.”
I stared at him.
“And you thought humiliating me at our daughter's wedding was part of that plan?”
“No.”
“Then why was her name card in my seat?”
He didn't answer.
Melissa had lied.
David had lied.
Everyone had lied.
And somehow I was still the only person standing at the center of it.
Then I noticed something.
A small silver bracelet around David's wrist.
I had never seen it before.
“Where did you get that?”
He looked down.
His face changed.
Emily noticed too.
“What is that?”
David covered it with his sleeve.
“Nothing.”
“Take it off.”
“Emily—”
“Take it off.”
He didn't.
So I stepped closer.
“David.”
He finally removed the bracelet.
There was a tiny engraved date inside.
March 17, 2003.
I knew that date.
My mother had died that day.
I stared at him.
“What does my mother's death have to do with this?”
David's silence was answer enough.
Then Melissa screamed from across the parking lot.
“DAVID!”
We turned.
She was running toward us.
Her face was terrified.
Behind her, two black SUVs had entered the parking lot.
She grabbed my arm.
“Get inside.”
I pulled away.
“Why?”
May you like
She looked directly into my eyes.
“Because they found the baby.”
