Chapter 4 - Clara Bennett’s Secret
Adrian found Clara in a private waiting room at Union Station.
Rosie was asleep across two chairs with her stuffed rabbit beneath one arm.
Clara sat beside her.
She looked exhausted.
When Adrian entered, she stood immediately.
“You shouldn't have come.”
“You called me.”
“Rosie called you.”
“Best decision anyone made today.”
Despite herself, Clara almost smiled.
Then she saw his expression.
“You spoke to Isabella.”
“Yes.”
Clara sat down again.
Adrian took the chair opposite her.
No assistants.
No Matteo.
No security.
Only the three of them.
“Tell me everything.”
Clara looked at Rosie.
Adrian followed her gaze.
“She deserves the truth.”
“She deserves safety.”
“Those things aren't mutually exclusive.”
Clara remained silent.
Adrian waited.
Finally she spoke.
“The night of the foundation gala wasn't planned.”
“I remember.”
“You were kind to me.”
“So were you.”
“I knew who you were. I knew I shouldn't let anything happen.”
“Clara.”
She looked at him.
“Whatever happened that night involved both of us.”
Her eyes lowered.
“Six weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.”
“Why didn't you call me?”
“I tried.”
Adrian froze.
“When?”
“Twice.”
“I never received anything.”
“Your office returned the first call.”
“Who?”
“I don't know. A woman.”
Isabella.
Adrian said nothing.
“The second time,” Clara continued, “a man came to see me.”
“Who?”
“Vittorio DeLuca.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“He told me you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“About the pregnancy.”
“What else?”
“He said you wanted proof before you'd speak to me.”
Adrian could barely contain his anger.
“So you did a test.”
“After Rosie was born.”
Clara nodded.
“Mr. DeLuca arranged everything.”
Of course he had.
“He gave me the result.”
“What did it say?”
“That you weren't her father.”
Adrian stared at sleeping Rosie.
“Did you believe it?”
“At first.”
“What changed?”
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
“Her.”
Adrian looked back.
“She got older. There were little things.”
“What things?”
“The expressions she made. The way she frowned when she was concentrating.”
Clara smiled weakly.
“I saw an interview with you once. You did exactly the same thing.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“Not exactly scientific.”
“No.”
“But?”
“My doctor encouraged me to repeat the test independently.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“When?”
“When Rosie was eight months old.”
“And?”
Clara looked directly into his eyes.
“99.98 percent.”
Adrian didn't move.
He had spent almost three years believing he had no children.
Across the room, his daughter slept with one shoe halfway off her foot.
The same child who had discovered the listening device beneath his desk.
“Why didn't you tell me then?”
Clara's tears finally fell.
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Isabella came.”
“To your apartment?”
“Yes.”
“She knew about the second test?”
Clara nodded.
“How?”
“I still don't know.”
The recording device.
Surveillance.
Vittorio.
Adrian's mind moved quickly.
“She showed me photographs,” Clara continued.
“Of what?”
“Rosie. At daycare. My mother at the grocery store. Me taking the bus to work.”
Adrian became very still.
“She said nobody was going to hurt us.”
That sentence somehow made it worse.
“But she wanted me to understand how easily her father could find us.”
“What did she ask you to do?”
“Nothing.”
Adrian frowned.
“Nothing?”
“That's what scared me.”
Clara wiped her face.
“She said, ‘You don't need to disappear. Just live your life and let Adrian live his.’”
“And you agreed?”
“I had Rosie.”
Adrian could not condemn her.
He had not been the one holding a baby while powerful strangers demonstrated how completely they controlled her world.
“So you came to work at my house?”
“Two years later.”
“Why?”
Clara looked embarrassed.
“I needed the job.”
“That can't be the only reason.”
“It wasn't.”
She glanced at Rosie.
“I wanted her close enough to see you.”
The words hurt in a way Adrian had not expected.
“Why?”
“So someday, if she asked, I could tell her something real about you.”
Adrian lowered his gaze.
Not the headlines.
Not the rumors.
Not somebody's version of him.
Something real.
“Did you intend to tell me?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“I never knew.”
Adrian looked at his daughter.
“When she found the device?”
“No.”
“Then why was there a recording of you on it?”
Clara looked confused.
“What recording?”
Adrian repeated the sentence.
Her face changed.
“I never said that here.”
“Where did you say it?”
“To my mother.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Adrian and Clara looked at each other.
The implication was immediate.
The device beneath his desk had not merely been recording Adrian.
Someone had copied recordings from elsewhere onto it.
Which meant Clara's apartment might also have been monitored.
Vittorio DeLuca had not stopped watching her.
Not after three years.
Not after Rosie.
Perhaps not ever.
Rosie stirred.
“Mommy?”
Clara immediately moved beside her.
“I'm here.”
Rosie opened her eyes and saw Adrian.
Her face brightened.
“Sir.”
Adrian crouched beside her.
“Hi.”
“You found Mommy.”
“I did.”
“I told her you'd help.”
Clara covered her mouth, fighting emotion.
Adrian looked at Rosie.
For three years, people with power had made decisions about this child's life without her ever knowing.
Now she looked at him as though helping her were the most obvious thing in the world.
Adrian reached out.
Rosie placed her tiny hand inside his.
He almost stopped breathing.
“My name is Adrian,” he said softly.
“You don't have to call me sir.”
Rosie considered this.
“Okay, Sir Adrian.”
Clara laughed through her tears.
Adrian did too.
Then Rosie leaned closer.
“Can I tell you another secret?”
Adrian's smile faded.
“What?”
She pointed toward her stuffed rabbit.
“The man put something in Bunny.”
Clara froze.
“What man?”
Rosie reached behind the rabbit's cloth ear.
Her tiny fingers pulled at the seam.
Something fell onto the chair.
A second black device.
Smaller than the first.
Adrian stared at it.
Clara covered Rosie's hand.
And suddenly they understood.
Nobody had been looking for Clara because she knew too much.
May you like
They had been looking for Rosie.
Because without realizing it, the little girl had been carrying the final piece of evidence with her all along.
