The Girl at Gate Seven

My wife saw me meet my daughter before I knew I had one.

That was how my honeymoon ended—before the plane even boarded.

The little girl sat on Valerie Rios’s lap in the VIP lounge at JFK, gripping a stuffed rabbit by one ear. When she turned toward me, I saw my own storm-gray eyes and the stubborn crease between her brows.

“Carter?” Chloe called from behind me.

I kept walking.

Valerie saw me and pulled the girl closer. Three years had passed since she’d left my Manhattan apartment, but I knew the way she held her breath when she was bracing for bad news.

“Valerie.”

“Carter.”

The girl raised her rabbit. “Cloud’s going on a plane.”

I crouched in front of her. “Is she excited?”

“No. She doesn’t like loud noises.” The girl studied my face. “You look like me.”

Valerie closed her eyes for half a second.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Lucy,” Valerie said. “She’s two years and seven months old.”

The dates lined up so fast I felt sick.

Three years ago, I’d let my father convince me Valerie wanted our money. I’d let my mother say a preschool teacher would drag the Sterling name through gossip columns. Valerie had walked away, and I had stayed where my family told me to stand.

“Is she—”

“Yes,” Valerie said.

One word. No room to hide in it.

I looked at Lucy again. She was trying to straighten Cloud’s bent ear.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Valerie’s face hardened. “I did.”

Before I could answer, Chloe stepped beside me. She had taken off her sunglasses.

“Carter,” she said quietly. “We need to talk.”

Valerie stood with Lucy in her arms.

Chloe looked at the child, then at me. She was pale, but she didn’t seem surprised.

“What does she mean, she told me?” I asked.

Chloe glanced toward the lounge entrance. My father had come through the doors, still wearing the dark suit from yesterday’s wedding weekend. He should have been in Virginia.

He stopped when he saw us.

Valerie shifted Lucy higher on her hip. “Ask him,” she said. “Ask Richard what he did with my letters.”

My father’s eyes went straight to Lucy.

“Carter,” he said, “step away from them.”