Chapter 4 - The Photograph Through the Fence
By morning, Bellweather had disappeared beneath fourteen inches of snow.
Elena had slept perhaps forty minutes.
Noah slept normally.
That seemed obscene.
Children had a gift for resting while adults quietly dismantled themselves around them.
At seven, Elena stood at the kitchen window watching a snowplow move down Main Street.
Adrian had spent the night downstairs.
She had not invited him to.
She had also not told him to leave.
After seeing the photograph, he had called two people.
One was Daniel Reeves, head of security for the Moretti Group.
The other was someone at the Vermont State Police.
Then Adrian had sat in the bookstore until dawn.
He never complained.
Never slept.
Never took his eyes off the windows for long.
At seven-thirty, Noah came downstairs wearing dinosaur pajamas.
He stopped when he saw Adrian.
“You’re still here.”
Adrian stood.
“Yes.”
“Did you sleep?”
“No.”
“My mom says that makes people grumpy.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Adrian glanced at her.
“Your mother is usually right.”
“Usually?”
“Noah.”
“What?”
Adrian hid a smile.
Breakfast consisted of toast, eggs, and an atmosphere so strange Elena could barely swallow.
Noah filled the silence.
“Do you have kids?”
Adrian looked at Elena.
“No.”
Noah chewed.
“Do you want one?”
Elena nearly dropped her coffee.
Adrian took longer to answer.
“I think maybe I already have one.”
Noah frowned.
“How do you not know?”
Fair question.
Elena set down her mug.
“Noah, after breakfast Maggie is taking you to her house.”
“Why?”
“Because school is closed.”
“Can I build a fort?”
“Yes.”
“With chairs?”
“Yes.”
“Can I use blankets?”
“That is generally how forts work.”
Noah nodded approvingly.
“Okay.”
After Maggie arrived, Elena waited until Noah had bundled himself into enough winter clothing to survive Antarctica.
Before leaving, he walked toward Adrian.
“Are you here later?”
Adrian crouched.
“If your mom says I can be.”
Noah considered that.
Then whispered as if sharing classified information, “She says no a lot.”
Adrian looked up at Elena.
“I’ve noticed.”
Noah left.
The door closed.
Elena immediately said, “We need rules.”
Adrian nodded.
“Agreed.”
That threw her.
She had prepared for a fight.
“No appearing at his school.”
“Agreed.”
“No gifts.”
“For how long?”
“Until I decide he understands who you are.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Fine.”
“No telling him you’re his father until we know how to explain it.”
“Fine.”
“No lawyers contacting me.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“No family.”
That caused a pause.
“My mother needs to know.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“You said she’ll have legal or financial implications because of some trust.”
“My mother has been mourning the idea of grandchildren for ten years.”
“That is not Noah’s responsibility.”
Adrian looked away.
Elena saw something there.
Pain.
Real pain.
She softened despite herself.
“How old is she?”
“Seventy-two.”
“Healthy?”
“For now.”
Elena exhaled.
“Not yet.”
Adrian nodded.
“Not yet.”
“DNA test.”
“Yes.”
“I want a private clinic.”
“I’ll arrange it.”
“No Moretti-owned anything.”
His eyebrows rose.
“We do not own DNA laboratories.”
“I wouldn’t put it past you.”
A flicker of amusement crossed his face.
It disappeared quickly.
“Elena, there’s one more thing.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what it is.”
“I’m practicing.”
He almost smiled again.
Then he became serious.
“His birth certificate.”
“What about it?”
“Is a father listed?”
“No.”
Adrian absorbed that.
The answer hurt him.
She could see it.
“I understand why,” he said.
“Do you?”
“No. But I’m trying.”
That was new.
Trying.
Adrian Moretti had never tried to understand other people’s decisions.
He evaluated them.
Corrected them.
Overruled them.
Elena poured herself more coffee.
“What happened after I left?” she asked.
He leaned against the counter.
“My father died in June.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“And the company?”
“I saved it.”
Of course he had.
“At what cost?”
Adrian looked toward the fireplace.
“Most things.”
She understood more than he meant to say.
“Did you ever look for me?”
“Yes.”
Her hand stopped.
“What?”
“For three months.”
“You told me never to contact you.”
“That didn’t mean I didn’t regret it.”
“You found me?”
“No.”
“I changed my number.”
“I know.”
“How?”
His expression answered.
She groaned.
“You had someone investigate me.”
“I had someone try.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Yes.”
“Did you just agree with me?”
“I’m growing.”
She stared.
He gave the smallest shrug.
Elena hated that he could still make her want to laugh.
“What stopped you?”
“I found your old apartment empty. Your employer said you resigned. Your bank records were inaccessible because my attorney pointed out that obtaining them without cause would be illegal.”
“Your attorney sounds sane.”
“He’s unbearable.”
“Good.”
“I convinced myself leaving you alone was the least selfish option.”
Elena looked at him.
“And now?”
“Now I know we have a son.”
She did not correct him.
That frightened her.
---
The test happened that afternoon.
A local physician collected the samples.
Noah thought the cheek swab was funny.
“Are you sick?” he asked Adrian.
“No.”
“Then why does the doctor need your spit?”
Elena nearly laughed.
Adrian responded with complete seriousness.
“She wants to see whether we’re related.”
Noah looked at Elena.
“Are we?”
Elena’s heart thudded.
She crouched.
“Maybe.”
“How?”
Adrian went very still.
Elena took Noah’s hands.
“You know how we talked about dads?”
“Yes.”
“And how some kids know their dads and some don’t?”
“Yes.”
“Well... Adrian might be your dad.”
Noah stared at Adrian.
Then at Elena.
Then back.
“Might?”
“We’re checking.”
Noah thought about it.
“Does he live here?”
“No.”
“Would he sleep in my room?”
Adrian coughed.
“No.”
“Okay.”
That appeared to resolve his biggest concern.
He wandered toward the waiting-room aquarium.
Adrian looked wrecked.
“He took that better than I did.”
“He’s four.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Two days later the results arrived.
Probability of paternity: 99.9998%.
Adrian read the page three times.
Elena stood across from him in the bookstore office.
“Well?”
He looked up.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“I needed to see it.”
“I know.”
He sat down.
For a man whose name regularly appeared beside billions of dollars, Adrian looked suddenly small.
“My son.”
This time Elena allowed the words to exist.
He rubbed a hand across his mouth.
“Can I tell my mother?”
Elena hesitated.
“Yes.”
His eyes lifted.
“But not bring her here. Not yet.”
“Thank you.”
Adrian stepped outside to make the call.
Through the office window, Elena watched him speak.
She could not hear the words.
But she saw him turn away from the bookstore.
She saw his shoulders shake once.
When he returned, his eyes were red.
Elena pretended not to notice.
“How did she take it?”
“She called me an idiot.”
Elena smiled.
“I like her already.”
“She would like you.”
“She met me twice.”
“She liked you then.”
“Your father didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked down.
“Because Evan had started investigating the company.”
Elena’s smile disappeared.
“He knew?”
“Yes.”
“And he wanted me away from you.”
“Yes.”
“Was he behind our breakup?”
“No.”
Adrian’s answer came quickly.
“My father pressured me. He threatened you. But I made the choice.”
“What threat?”
Adrian hesitated.
“He said if I stayed with you, he would make sure everyone investigating the missing money believed Evan had stolen it.”
Elena stopped moving.
“What?”
“He had enough forged records to make it look possible.”
“My brother was dead.”
“I know.”
“He was going to destroy his name.”
“Yes.”
“And you believed him?”
“Yes.”
“Was Evan innocent?”
“Yes.”
The room tilted.
Elena leaned against the desk.
“All these years...”
“I cleared his name privately.”
“Privately?”
She looked up sharply.
“Who knows?”
“The board. Federal investigators. Several attorneys.”
“What about me?”
Adrian had no answer.
She stared at him.
“You protected a dead man’s reputation in secret and never thought his sister deserved to know?”
“I thought contacting you would reopen—”
“Stop deciding what protects me!”
The words ripped from her.
Adrian went silent.
“I spent four years wondering if Evan had been reckless that night. I wondered if he had been drinking. I wondered if he was distracted. You knew there was more.”
“Yes.”
“And still said nothing.”
“Yes.”
Elena wiped tears angrily from her face.
“You haven’t changed.”
Adrian flinched.
That one landed harder than the slap.
Maybe because he believed it.
A knock came from the bookstore.
Daniel Reeves entered.
Tall, lean, early fifties.
He carried a laptop and looked unhappy.
“We have a problem.”
Adrian straightened.
“What?”
Daniel opened the computer.
A surveillance image filled the screen.
Noah leaving preschool three days earlier.
Another showed Elena outside Lantern & Pine.
Another showed Adrian entering the bookstore.
Daniel clicked again.
A screenshot from a private encrypted message board appeared.
Beneath Noah’s photograph was a sentence.
Moretti has an heir. Confirmed Vermont.
Elena’s blood went cold.
“Who posted it?”
“We don’t know.”
Adrian’s face became stone.
Daniel continued.
“But someone accessed Mr. Moretti’s sealed family trust documents yesterday.”
“Who has access?” Elena asked.
“Seven people.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Names.”
Daniel listed them.
Attorneys.
Executives.
A trustee.
Then one name made Adrian’s face change.
“Victor Salazar.”
Elena remembered the stranger from the café.
“Is that who sent the man?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Daniel closed the laptop.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The person who accessed the trust also opened archived files from four years ago.”
Adrian frowned.
“Which files?”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Evan Parker.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Elena’s pulse roared.
Adrian’s voice was barely audible.
“Victor knew Evan?”
Daniel nodded.
May you like
“Apparently much better than anyone told you.”
---
