Chapter 6 - THE YEARS HE MISSED
Daniel found the returned payment by noon.
A bank statement showed fifty thousand dollars entering Claire’s account, then leaving three days later through a certified bank transfer.
The recipient was a company owned by Vivienne.
Attached was Claire’s letter.
I will not sign away my child’s right to know her father.
Gabriel read that sentence until the words blurred.
“Why didn’t I get this?”
Daniel set another document beside it.
“Your personal correspondence was routed through the family office at the time.”
“My mother ran the office.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel rubbed his face.
There had been a housekeeper who said Claire stopped by. A receptionist who mentioned a woman calling.
He remembered being exhausted. Grieving his father. Letting other people decide which problems deserved his attention.
“They didn’t hide every clue,” he said.
Daniel stayed quiet.
“I helped them by not looking.”
“Then look now.”
In Claire’s room, Gabriel pulled his chair close.
“Tell me about her.”
Claire glanced at Léa, asleep beneath a hospital blanket.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“She hates peas. Loves thunderstorms as long as she’s indoors. She thinks every dog is lonely until she pets it.”
He smiled, painfully.
“She had pneumonia when she was two. I spent three nights in a chair beside her bed.”
His smile disappeared.
“Was anyone with you?”
“June came the second night.”
“Your aunt?”
Claire nodded.
“She’s on her way here.”
He looked at Léa’s small hand resting on the blanket.
“Her first word?”
“More.”
He laughed once.
“Of course.”
“She walked at thirteen months. Straight into a laundry basket.”
Claire’s voice broke at the edge of the memory.
Gabriel reached for her hand, then stopped.
She saw.
After a moment, she placed her hand in his.
“I can’t give you those years back,” she said.
“I know.”
“And I can’t pretend I’m not angry.”
“At me?”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“You should be.”
She looked surprised.
“I should have come myself. Knocked on every door. Asked questions nobody could answer for me.”
“I kept waiting for you to do that.”
The words landed quietly.
That made them worse.
His phone vibrated.
Daniel.
CHECK THE PHOTO I JUST SENT.
It showed the man in the navy jacket leaving Harbor House.
Beside him stood Lucien Valmont.
May you like
Gabriel’s cousin.
And the man scheduled to take over Gabriel’s company if he missed the vote in Geneva.
