Margaret placed an envelope on the table.
“You will tell Emily the child cannot be Ethan’s.”
Warren looked toward the door.
“And Ethan?”
“You will tell him she chose Michael.”
“What if they speak to each other?”
“They won’t.”
My hand began to shake.
The video continued.
Warren opened the envelope.
Money.
More than I could count.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
Margaret’s face remained calm.
“Because Ethan can never know what he carries.”
The video ended.
Ethan stared at the dark screen.
“What I carry?”
I looked at him.
The old medical diagnosis.
The false infertility.
The effort to prevent him from having a child.
This had never been about me.
Not completely.
Someone had wanted to ensure Ethan Brooks never became a father.
Theo came out of the bedroom holding the triceratops.
“Why is everyone quiet?”
I crouched and opened my arms.
He came to me.
Ethan’s phone rang.
Marcus.
Ethan answered.
“Yes.”
His expression changed as he listened.
“Who owns it?”
A pause.
“That is not possible.”
He ended the call.
“What?” I asked.
“The old bus terminal belongs to a medical trust.”
“Which one?”
“The Warren Family Foundation.”
Dr. Warren.
The man who separated us.
The man connected to locker 214.
Rosie looked toward the clock.
Nine twenty.
Less than three hours until midnight.
Ethan held the silver key.
“We are not going there alone.”
“We are not going at all.”
His eyes met mine.
“The locker may contain the reason they destroyed our marriage.”
“And it may be a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Then why risk it?”
He looked toward Theo.
“Because someone has watched our son, entered your building, and left proof that my mother and doctor conspired against us.”
His voice remained calm.
“But I will not decide for you.”
That stopped me.
Six years ago, every powerful person around Ethan had decided what I should know.
What I should believe.
Where I should go.
Now he placed the choice in my hands.
I looked at Theo.
At the child who had lived safely inside the quiet life I built.
Then at the photograph of Margaret and Dr. Warren.
Safety had already been breached.
The secret had found us.
“We go,” I said. “But Theo stays with Rosie.”
“No,” Theo said immediately.
I held him closer.
“This is grown-up business.”
“Dad just got here.”
The word dad entered the room so naturally that Ethan looked away.
Rosie knelt.
“You and I are going to make pie.”
“It’s Thursday.”