Chapter 10 - The Waiting Room
Hospitals stripped Luca Moretti down to a man in a plastic chair.
No long table.
No guarded doorway.
No one pretending he controlled what happened next.
Michael went in with Emily. Luca waited outside, holding the little white onesie she had left in his car.
He had folded it into a square.
Unfolded it.
Folded it again.
“She thought I didn’t want her,” he said.
I sat beside him.
“Yes.”
He stared at the floor.
“I kept saying I’d call tomorrow.”
“Why?”
“Because I was hurt.”
I looked at him.
“Vanessa told me Emily wanted distance. Said I was overbearing. Said the more I called, the worse I made it.”
“And you believed her.”
“Yes.”
For once, the word came without an explanation attached.
I thought about my father calling his office.
About messages that never became conversations.
“You let people tell you who loved you,” I said. “And who deserved your time.”
He turned toward me.
I almost apologized.
Then I didn’t.
A nurse came out.
Emily and the baby were doing well. They were keeping her for observation, but there was no sign of labor.
Luca’s head dropped into his hands.
When we were allowed inside, Emily looked exhausted.
Michael sat beside her with both hands around hers.
Luca stopped at the foot of the bed.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“No. I’m sorry I made it possible.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
“I needed you to ask me.”
“I should have.”
“I don’t need you deciding everything now because you feel guilty.”
He nodded.
“You tell me what you need.”
“Start with answering your own phone.”
He took it out.
Placed it on her blanket.
“New number. You, Michael, Claire, and Helen. Nobody answers it for me.”
Emily gave a tired smile.
“That’s a start.”
Helen called while we were leaving.
The preserved company records included email instructions from Paul to Vanessa about clearing the cabinet before the property review.
There was also a recent transfer.
A large payment to a company Vanessa controlled.
“What was it for?” Luca asked.
“The description says consulting.”
“And the date?”
Helen paused.
“The day Emily first called to tell you she was pregnant.”
I looked back through the hospital room window.
Emily was smiling at something Michael said.
May you like
Her silence hadn’t been an accident.
Someone had been paid when it began.
