Chapter 2 - THE QUESTION HE HAD NO RIGHT TO ASK
“Don't touch her phone,” Claire said when Daniel started forward. “Get my daughter out of this room.”
He stopped immediately.
Security director Mara Torres reached them. Daniel asked for a private room, medical help, and preservation of the ballroom footage. Mara led them into a small sitting room while another guard stayed with Vanessa.
Claire settled Lucy on a couch. Her child kept checking the door.
“The lady can't come in?”
“No, baby.”
Daniel retrieved the rabbit and placed it on the couch, leaving enough space that Lucy didn't have to reach toward him.
“He had a rough night,” he said.
Lucy examined one bent ear. “His name is Tuesday.”
“Hi, Tuesday.”
Her fingers loosened slightly.
A medic checked Claire's wrist and spoke gently with Lucy. Only after the medic stepped away did Daniel ask the question waiting between them.
“Is she mine?”
Claire looked at the man she had once loved.
“Yes.”
He lowered himself into a chair.
“But five years ago—”
“She was eleven months old when they fired me. You'd finally come home from the overseas project. I thought I'd get five minutes with you.”
Their relationship had begun before his long assignment abroad. Claire had discovered the pregnancy after he left. Her messages went unanswered. Registered letters sent through his executive office came back with formal instructions to stop contacting him.
“I never got those.”
“I didn't know that.”
“Why didn't you come to my house?”
“I did. Twice. Security turned me away. The second time, Vanessa came downstairs.”
Daniel put both hands over his mouth.
Claire wouldn't comfort him. Not tonight.
“Why come now?” he asked.
“An independent trustee, Ruth Bell, contacted me about old foundation payments. She offered to meet here before the speeches. My sitter got sick. I brought Lucy because I thought a room full of witnesses would be safe.”
She glanced at the tin.
“Your father sent that statement before he died. Vanessa made sure I was afraid to use it.”
Outside, a man's voice rose, demanding to see Daniel. Chief financial officer Martin Hale.
Mara entered instead, carrying her radio.
“Someone just submitted an urgent maintenance request for your office,” she said. “They want the old wall cabinets removed tonight.”
Daniel stood.
“Who authorized it?”
May you like
Mara looked toward the hallway.
“Martin Hale.”
