Chapter 2 - The Question No One Expected
Victoria waited until they were inside the car before she spoke.
The black sedan had barely pulled away from Harrove University when she turned toward Ethan.
“Who is Maya Bennett?”
Ethan watched the university disappear behind them.
“She was someone I knew.”
Victoria's expression hardened.
“People you merely knew don't make you forget I’m standing beside you.”
Ethan rubbed a hand over his face.
He could still see Noah.
The curls.
The eyes.
The compass.
“He might be my son.”
Victoria stared at him.
For several seconds, the only sound inside the car was rain beginning to tap softly against the roof.
“You have a son?”
“I said he might be.”
“He called you his father?”
“No.”
“Did Maya?”
“No.”
“Then what exactly happened?”
Ethan looked toward her.
“The boy is three.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“He looks like me.”
Victoria gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“Lots of children resemble lots of people.”
“He was wearing something I gave Maya years ago.”
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“A compass pendant.”
“Maybe she kept it.”
“She put it around her child's neck.”
Victoria looked out the opposite window.
Ethan knew her well enough to recognize the calculations taking place behind her silence.
Victoria did not panic.
She strategized.
It was one of the qualities he admired about her.
Tonight it unsettled him.
“When were you together?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“We met at Harrove.”
“You never mentioned her.”
“I never mentioned a lot of people I dated before you.”
“Apparently this one was different.”
Ethan didn't respond.
Because Maya had been different.
There had been other women.
Some relationships had lasted months.
One nearly a year.
But Maya had been the only person who had known Ethan before the company, before magazine covers, before every dinner became networking and every relationship required a public-relations strategy.
Maya had known him when he lived in an apartment with a broken heater and owned exactly two suits.
She knew that Ethan hated olives, played piano badly, and became silent when frightened.
She knew his ambition before it became power.
And she had loved him anyway.
Or so he had believed.
Victoria turned back.
“Were you in love with her?”
Ethan's hesitation answered.
Victoria's mouth tightened.
“Interesting.”
“Victoria.”
“No. It is interesting. I’m apparently engaged to a man whose former great love has appeared with a child who may be his.”
“I didn't know.”
“That's what concerns me.”
He looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means either Maya hid a child from you for three years, or someone hid a child from you. Neither possibility is minor.”
Ethan couldn't argue.
The car reached their Manhattan townhouse.
Victoria went inside.
Ethan remained on the sidewalk.
“I need to make a call.”
She paused.
“To Maya?”
“Yes.”
“And you have her number?”
“No.”
Victoria gave him a humorless smile.
“Of course you don't.”
Ethan contacted Harrove's alumni director.
Ten minutes later, he had Maya's email but no telephone number.
Privacy regulations, the director explained apologetically.
Ethan sent three words.
We need to talk.
He stared at the message.
Too aggressive.
He deleted it.
He tried again.
Maya, I won't pressure you, but I need to understand what happened. Please let me know when you're ready to talk.
He hesitated.
Then added:
And please tell me Noah is okay.
He sent it.
No response came that night.
Nor the following morning.
At Caldwell Meridian headquarters, Ethan sat through an executive meeting without hearing half of it.
His chief operating officer finally stopped presenting.
“Ethan?”
“What?”
“You asked me a question.”
“I did?”
Several executives exchanged glances.
Ethan closed the folder.
“We'll continue tomorrow.”
Once everyone left, his longtime assistant, Daniel Mercer, remained.
Daniel was fifty-two, discreet, dependable, and one of the few people who had worked with Ethan before Caldwell Meridian became enormous.
“You all right?”
Ethan studied him.
Daniel had also been around four years ago.
“I saw Maya Bennett last night.”
Daniel's face changed.
Barely.
But Ethan saw it.
“You remember her.”
“Of course.”
“She has a son.”
Daniel's fingers stopped moving over his tablet.
“How old?”
“Three.”
Silence.
Ethan stood.
“Interesting that you asked his age immediately.”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“Ethan—”
“Did you know?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
Too quickly.
“Did my father know?”
Daniel's eyes dropped.
Ethan walked around the desk.
“Daniel.”
“I don't know.”
“That's not what I asked.”
“It is the truth.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“My father told me Maya didn't want contact with me.”
“I remember.”
“He said she returned everything from my apartment.”
Daniel said nothing.
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
“Did she call the office?”
Daniel hesitated.
Ethan's stomach tightened.
“Did she?”
“There may have been calls.”
“How many?”
“It was four years ago.”
“How many?”
Daniel exhaled.
“I remember one.”
“What happened?”
“Your father instructed reception to direct personal calls through his office while you were working on the Denver acquisition.”
Ethan stared.
“My father was not running my personal life.”
Daniel's silence said otherwise.
Ethan grabbed his phone.
Maya's email appeared.
One new message.
His pulse accelerated.
Tomorrow. 8:00 a.m. Riverside Café on 72nd. Come alone.
Ethan read it twice.
Then a third time.
Daniel spoke quietly.
“Are you going?”
Ethan looked at him.
“Obviously.”
The next morning, Ethan arrived at 7:35.
Maya entered at precisely eight.
No Noah.
Simple coat.
Hair tied back.
She looked exhausted.
Ethan stood.
“Thank you for coming.”
“Don't thank me yet.”
She sat.
Neither ordered coffee.
Ethan placed both hands on the table.
“Is Noah mine?”
Maya looked directly at him.
“Yes.”
One word.
It split his life into before and after.
Ethan leaned back.
For several seconds he couldn't breathe properly.
“You're certain?”
Maya's eyes flashed.
“I've spent every day of his life being certain.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Her expression hardened.
“I did.”
Ethan froze.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't.”
“I called you seventeen times.”
He stared.
“I sent emails.”
“I never got them.”
“I went to your office.”
“You never came to my office.”
“I stood in the lobby for almost three hours.”
His pulse pounded.
Maya leaned closer.
“Your father came down.”
Ethan's throat tightened.
“What did he say?”
“That you didn't want to see me.”
“No.”
“He told me you knew I was pregnant.”
Ethan shook his head.
“No.”
“He said you'd already made your decision.”
“Maya, I swear—”
“He gave me an envelope.”
“What envelope?”
She looked away.
“Money.”
Ethan's face went cold.
“How much?”
“I didn't open it.”
“What happened to it?”
“I mailed it back.”
“To whom?”
“Your father.”
Ethan stood abruptly.
Several customers glanced toward them.
Maya lowered her voice.
“Sit down.”
“My father knew you were pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“And he told you I knew?”
“Yes.”
Ethan sat again.
His hands shook.
He hid them beneath the table.
“My father told me you had left.”
Maya's anger faltered.
“What?”
“He said you'd decided I cared more about the company than you. He said you'd returned my things and asked me never to contact you.”
“I never said that.”
“I called your old number.”
“I changed it after—”
“You changed your apartment.”
“I couldn't afford it alone after Noah was born.”
They stared at each other.
Four years of resentment began rearranging themselves into something worse.
Betrayal.
But perhaps not betrayal by each other.
Maya's voice softened.
“Ethan, I believed you chose your future.”
“I believed you chose yours.”
She looked down.
Neither spoke for a long moment.
Finally Ethan asked the question that terrified him most.
“Does Noah know anything about me?”
“No.”
“Does he know he has a father?”
“He knows other children have fathers. He hasn't asked much yet.”
“And what were you going to tell him?”
Maya's eyes filled.
“The truth.”
“When?”
“When he was old enough to survive it.”
Ethan flinched.
“Survive me?”
“Survive being rejected.”
“I would never reject him.”
“You didn't know him yesterday.”
“I know him today.”
Maya stared at him.
“That isn't the same thing as being ready to become someone's father.”
Ethan wanted to argue.
Instead he looked at his hands.
She was right.
A son wasn't an acquisition.
A relationship couldn't be negotiated into existence.
“What do you want from me?”
Maya answered immediately.
“Nothing.”
“That isn't acceptable.”
“It isn't a business agreement.”
“He's my child.”
“He's my child too.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
The question hurt.
Ethan forced himself to remain calm.
“I want a DNA test.”
Maya nodded.
“I expected that.”
“And if it confirms what you're telling me—”
“It will.”
“Then I want to know him.”
For the first time, fear appeared clearly in her eyes.
“No lawyers.”
“I didn't say lawyers.”
“No custody threats. No investigators digging through my life. No men in suits deciding Noah suddenly belongs in penthouses and private schools because his father is rich.”
“I don't want to take him from you.”
“You don't know what you want yet.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“Then give me the chance to find out.”
Maya studied him.
Finally she nodded.
“One step at a time.”
“One step.”
She stood.
Ethan did too.
“Maya.”
She paused.
“I am sorry.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
“So am I.”
She left.
Ethan remained beside the table.
His phone rang.
Victoria.
He ignored it.
A second call arrived.
His mother.
He answered.
“Ethan?”
Something in her voice was wrong.
“Mom?”
“I heard you went to see Maya.”
Ethan's entire body went still.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
Then his mother whispered something that changed the situation again.
“Because your father called me last night.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
May you like
His father had been dead for two years.
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