Chapter 4 - The Price of a Child
Cole read the DNA report three times.
Then he sat down.
Not because he doubted it.
Because seeing scientific confirmation of something his heart already understood made the lost months suddenly measurable.
Three months.
Martin had known for three months.
Cole had known for less than twenty-four hours.
He looked at Elise’s stomach.
“May I?”
Elise understood.
She nodded.
Cole knelt before her.
His hand rested gently against the curve of her belly.
Nothing happened.
He gave a nervous half-smile.
“Apparently the kid already dislikes me.”
Then the baby kicked.
Cole froze.
Elise watched his face collapse into something unguarded.
Wonder.
Grief.
Love.
Another kick.
Cole laughed quietly.
“Hi.”
Elise’s eyes filled.
He looked up.
“Do you know what it is?”
“A girl.”
Cole lowered his head.
A daughter.
For months, Elise had imagined this moment angrily.
She had planned speeches.
Accusations.
Boundaries.
Instead, she watched the man she once loved whisper hello to a child he had never known existed.
“I would have come,” he said.
“I know that now.”
“I would have come to every appointment.”
“I know.”
“I would have built the crib.”
“You would have built an unnecessarily complicated crib.”
He smiled.
“You know me.”
“That’s the problem.”
Their eyes held.
The distance between them had not vanished.
But it no longer felt impossible.
The next morning brought another revelation.
Diane’s notebook contained records proving Martin had diverted millions from Vale Motor Supply through fake vendors.
One vendor was connected to the company that had purchased Cole’s business debt.
Another had funded the charity event where Cole met Vanessa.
Martin had spent years arranging people like pieces on a board.
But the final pages concerned Elise’s unborn child.
Diane’s shares in Vale Motor Supply transferred to Elise.
If Elise died, they passed to her descendants.
Martin could not simply reclaim them.
But he could control them if he became guardian of Elise’s child.
Cole understood first.
“He planned to argue I wasn’t the father.”
Richard nodded.
“Then present himself as the child’s closest stable relative.”
Elise felt nauseated.
“That’s why he secretly ordered the DNA test.”
“He needed to know whether Cole could challenge him.”
“And when it proved Cole was the father?”
Richard looked grim.
“His plan changed.”
Police intensified the search.
Meanwhile, Cole insisted Elise stay somewhere protected.
She refused his penthouse.
“I’m not moving into your house.”
“It has security.”
“So does a bank vault. I’m not sleeping there either.”
“You’re impossible.”
“You used to like that.”
“I still—”
Cole stopped.
Elise looked at him.
He looked away.
Eventually, they compromised.
She stayed in a guest apartment inside Cole’s secured office building.
That evening they ate takeout.
Chinese food.
Straight from cardboard cartons.
Just like their first anniversary.
“You remember?” Cole asked.
“Of course.”
He leaned back.
“I meant what I said that night.”
“About giving me something better?”
“Yes.”
“You misunderstood me.”
“I know.”
“No. You understand now. Back then you didn’t.”
Cole waited.
“I didn’t need you to become rich,” Elise said. “I needed you to come home.”
His expression tightened.
“I tried.”
“I know.”
“And you needed to call me when you learned about the baby.”
“I tried too.”
They sat with that.
Two people who had both reached for each other while someone else stood between them cutting every line.
Cole finally said, “I’m sorry I believed Martin.”
“So am I.”
“I should have known you wouldn’t leave like that.”
“I should have known the same thing.”
He smiled sadly.
“We were easier to break than we thought.”
“No.”
Elise shook her head.
“We were isolated. There’s a difference.”
That mattered.
Because blame was easy.
Understanding was harder.
At 11:42 p.m., Elise’s phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Her catering kitchen.
Smoke poured beneath the back door.
Elise jumped up.
“My kitchen.”
Cole called security.
Firefighters arrived quickly.
The fire was contained before destroying the building.
But someone had entered first.
Nothing was stolen except one thing.
Diane’s original recipe book.
Elise stared at the empty shelf.
“Why would Martin take that?”
Cole examined the wall.
“He wouldn’t.”
“What?”
“He didn’t come for the book.”
Cole pointed.
Behind where the recipe book had stood was a small hole.
A hidden compartment.
Elise stared.
“I didn’t know that existed.”
Inside was a sealed envelope.
Apparently, whoever broke in had removed the recipe book but missed what was behind it.
The envelope carried Diane’s handwriting.
For Elise and Cole—together, if possible.
Elise’s hands shook.
Inside was a letter.
Diane had written it shortly before her death.
She apologized for failing to confront Martin sooner.
Then she revealed something neither expected.
She had secretly purchased a controlling interest in the land surrounding Barrett Automotive.
Not for profit.
For Elise.
Diane had believed the Riverside redevelopment would eventually make the property valuable.
She wanted her daughter and Cole to have financial security.
But Martin discovered the plan.
That was when his obsession with separating them began.
At the bottom Diane wrote:
If Martin learns that the final parcel was transferred, he will search for the deed. It is not in the bank.
Cole frowned.
“Then where?”
Elise continued reading.
Diane had hidden it somewhere Martin would never willingly look.
Where Cole first promised my daughter that love did not require wealth.
Elise and Cole looked at each other.
“The roof,” they said simultaneously.
Barrett Automotive still existed.
Cole had bought the building back after becoming successful, though he never reopened the shop.
They drove there with security.
Dust covered the old apartment.
Their secondhand sofa remained beneath a sheet.
Elise walked upstairs.
Memories waited everywhere.
The dent in the kitchen wall where Cole dropped a toolbox.
The windowsill where Elise grew basil.
The roof door still squeaked.
Outside, the skyline had changed.
Cole walked to the spot where they once ate takeout.
“There.”
One brick in the parapet was newer.
Cole removed it.
Inside was a metal cylinder.
The deed.
Elise laughed through tears.
Her mother had protected their future inside the poorest home Martin had ever mocked.
Then Cole noticed something else.
A small blinking light.
He reached beneath the ledge.
A camera.
Recently installed.
Someone had been watching the roof.
Cole’s phone rang.
Martin.
Cole answered.
Martin spoke calmly.
“Thank you.”
Cole’s face hardened.
“For what?”
“For finding the deed.”
A red light appeared across the neighboring building.
Not a weapon.
A camera indicator.
Martin was watching remotely.
Then a security alarm sounded downstairs.
Cole grabbed Elise’s hand.
They hurried toward the stairwell.
But Elise stopped.
On the dusty floor beneath the roof door lay a photograph that had not been there when they entered.
It showed Diane.
Alive.
Taken after the date Martin claimed she had died.
Elise turned it over.
Three words were written on the back.
ASK ABOUT TUESDAY.
Her mother had supposedly died on a Tuesday.
May you like
And suddenly Elise wondered whether even Diane’s death had happened the way Martin said it had.
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