Chapter 4
Laura did not hit Adrian.
He expected her to.
His shoulders were ready.
His jaw set.
That was why she gave him silence instead.
The entire ballroom waited.
Finally Laura asked:
“Where is the letter?”
Adrian rubbed his thumb against his ring.
“I don't know.”
Megan immediately turned toward him.
“What?”
Laura saw genuine surprise.
“You didn't know he took it.”
Megan looked at Adrian.
“No.”
Their alliance shifted.
Laura felt it.
Adrian spoke quickly.
“Claire asked me to collect personal items.”
“Where is the letter?”
“I told you.”
His voice sharpened.
“I don't know.”
Laura’s gaze remained steady.
“You had it.”
“Yes.”
“And lost it.”
“I destroyed it.”
Megan’s face changed.
Laura did not blink.
“Why?”
Adrian breathed through his nose.
“Because Claire was angry.”
“At who?”
No answer.
Laura stepped closer.
“At Megan?”
Silence.
“At you?”
Adrian looked away.
There.
Laura’s voice became quieter.
“What did she write?”
“I didn't read all of it.”
Megan laughed once.
Bitter.
“You always read everything.”
Adrian turned.
Her eyes had changed.
Not wife defending husband.
Woman reconsidering twenty years beside him.
Laura let them look at each other.
Then Adrian said:
“Claire blamed me for things that weren't my fault.”
Megan’s breathing stopped.
“What things?”
Adrian’s lips pressed together.
Megan stepped toward him.
“What things?”
Laura watched the power move away from him.
He saw it too.
“Nothing happened while we were together.”
Megan froze.
That sentence contained an admission he had not meant to make.
Her voice came out almost soundless.
“While we were together?”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Laura now understood why Megan hated Claire’s face.
Not only because they were sisters.
Not only because Claire died.
Because something had happened between Claire and Adrian.
Megan looked at Laura.
Then at the photograph.
Her hand began trembling.
“We were separated for four months.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Megan.”
She ignored him.
“Seven years into our marriage.”
Her eyes remained on Claire.
“He moved into the Boston apartment.”
Laura asked:
“Was Claire there?”
Megan swallowed.
“I didn't know.”
Adrian’s voice turned hard.
“It wasn't like that.”
Megan faced him.
Her breath was coming faster now.
“Then tell me what it was like.”
No answer.
Laura's attorney interrupted softly.
“We found the medical-history envelope.”
Every head turned.
It had not been destroyed.
A scanned copy remained with the adoption agency’s former medical consultant.
The first pages contained ordinary family history.
Diabetes.
Hypertension.
Allergies.
Then one handwritten line.
Paternal medical history available privately. Father informed of pregnancy.
Laura looked up.
May you like
Adrian had stopped moving.
Emma’s father had known she existed before she was born.
