Chapter 2 - The Papers Adrian Never Read
Vanessa grabbed Adrian’s arm.
“She’s lying.”
I looked at her.
“Hello, Vanessa.”
Her eyes snapped toward me.
“You expect us to believe you secretly had his baby?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“When did you find out?”
“Before the divorce was finalized.”
His jaw tightened.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I did.”
He froze.
“What?”
I reached toward the bedside drawer and removed a folder.
Vanessa stared at it.
“What is that?”
“The divorce disclosure.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
I opened the folder.
“Page forty-three.”
He didn’t move.
So I read the relevant sentence.
“Petitioner acknowledges notification regarding pregnancy and reserves all parental and financial determinations until after birth and confirmed paternity.”
Adrian stared at me.
“That wasn’t there.”
“It was.”
“My attorney would have told me.”
“Your attorney tried.”
I pulled out an email.
“He sent you three messages asking you to discuss Section Eleven.”
Vanessa’s eyes flicked toward Adrian.
He said nothing.
I continued.
“You replied, ‘Approved. Stop wasting my time.’”
His face hardened.
“Why didn’t you tell me directly?”
“I tried.”
“No.”
“March fourteenth. Your office.”
He frowned.
Then remembered.
“You came without an appointment.”
“I said I needed ten minutes.”
“You started crying.”
“Because I had just learned I was pregnant.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“You told me she came begging for you back.”
Adrian ignored her.
I continued.
“You told security to remove me.”
His eyes dropped.
I remembered every second.
Adrian standing behind his desk.
Vanessa sitting on the corner beside him.
Me holding an ultrasound envelope.
“Adrian, please.”
“We’re done, Emma.”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Tell my attorney.”
“This isn’t about the divorce.”
“Everything between us is about the divorce.”
Then he had looked at security.
“Escort her out.”
So I left.
And that night my attorney added the pregnancy disclosure to the settlement documents.
Adrian signed it.
Without reading it.
Vanessa suddenly pointed toward Lily.
“A baby doesn’t prove anything.”
“No,” I said. “It doesn’t.”
Adrian finally looked at me.
“I want a DNA test.”
“I already arranged one.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You did?”
“I knew eventually you’d ask.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
Vanessa grabbed his sleeve.
“We’re supposed to be getting married.”
That sentence seemed to remind him where he had come from.
Adrian looked at her white dress.
Then at me.
Then at Lily.
Vanessa whispered:
“Our guests are waiting.”
I said nothing.
Adrian’s phone rang.
He checked the screen.
His father.
He declined it.
Vanessa stared at him.
“Adrian.”
“I need five minutes.”
“No. You need to come back to the church.”
“Vanessa—”
“We have four hundred guests!”
“And I may have a daughter!”
Vanessa went silent.
Lily began crying.
Adrian looked toward her instinctively.
I pulled her closer.
“Lower your voice.”
Something shifted in his face.
He stepped backward.
For once, Adrian Carter obeyed without arguing.
Vanessa didn’t.
“You planned this.”
I looked at her.
“Planned what?”
“Today.”
“You think I scheduled childbirth around your wedding?”
Her cheeks reddened.
“You waited until today to tell him.”
“He called me.”
Adrian looked at Vanessa.
“She’s right.”
Vanessa turned on him.
“You’re defending her?”
“I’m stating a fact.”
She stared at him for several seconds.
Then she removed the veil from her hair.
“You have ten minutes.”
She walked out.
Adrian remained.
I said, “You should follow her.”
He didn’t.
Instead, he looked at Lily.
“What’s her name?”
“Lily.”
He repeated it softly.
“Lily.”
Then his eyes lifted toward me.
“What else was in those papers, Emma?”
That was the first intelligent question he had asked all day.
May you like
I closed the folder.
“A lot.”
