Chapter 2 - The Boy Michael Hid
Michael followed me into the hallway.
“Claire, please.”
I turned so fast he nearly walked into me.
“Do not touch me.”
He stopped.
Behind him, Diane remained beside the dining table as though she were watching a television drama instead of the collapse of her son’s marriage.
Rachel was still connected on the phone.
I lifted it again.
“Start talking.”
Michael looked toward the living room where Emma was waiting.
“Not here.”
“Then we leave.”
Diane scoffed.
“You’re being dramatic.”
I turned toward her.
“You hit me in front of my daughter and then revealed my husband has a secret child.”
“I think I’ve earned dramatic.”
She opened her mouth.
I raised one finger.
“Try me.”
For once, she stayed quiet.
I collected Emma’s coat.
Michael blocked neither the door nor me.
That was probably the smartest decision he made all evening.
We drove home in silence.
Emma watched me from the back seat.
“Mom?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Does Dad have another kid?”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel.
She had heard more than I thought.
I hated all of them for making me answer that question before I had answers myself.
“It sounds like he might.”
“Is that kid my brother?”
“Maybe.”
Emma stared through the window.
“Did Dad know?”
I swallowed.
“We’ll talk when I know everything.”
Michael arrived twenty minutes later.
Rachel came thirty minutes after that.
I put Emma upstairs with a movie and closed the kitchen door.
Then the three of us sat around the table.
Michael looked exhausted.
Rachel looked ashamed.
I felt nothing except cold.
“Timeline,” I said.
Michael began.
He married Natalie when he was twenty-four.
The marriage lasted three years.
Near the end, Natalie told him she was pregnant.
Michael claimed he believed the baby was his.
Then Diane told him Natalie had been having an affair.
Natalie denied it.
Diane produced a paternity report after Lucas was born.
The report said Michael was not the father.
“You saw it?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“From a laboratory?”
Michael hesitated.
“Mom gave it to me.”
I almost laughed.
“You accepted a piece of paper handed to you by Diane and abandoned your child?”
“I was twenty-seven.”
“You weren’t seven.”
Rachel lowered her eyes.
Michael continued.
Natalie moved to Wisconsin.
They divorced.
Two years later, Michael met me.
He never told me about the pregnancy because, according to him, Lucas was not his son.
Then six months ago, Natalie contacted Rachel.
I stared at my sister.
“Why you?”
Rachel wiped her cheek.
“She couldn’t reach Michael directly.”
“She found my office website.”
Rachel worked as a paralegal for a family-law firm downtown.
“She remembered my name from your wedding announcement.”
Natalie claimed the old test had never come from the laboratory listed on the document.
She had recently discovered that herself while organizing old medical files for Lucas.
Rachel contacted Michael.
They arranged another DNA test.
“And?”
Michael looked at me.
“Ninety-nine point nine percent.”
I closed my eyes.
Lucas was his.
That meant Emma had a brother.
It also meant Michael had learned the truth six months ago and had looked me in the eyes every Thursday afterward.
“I was going to tell you.”
I opened my eyes.
“When?”
“After I figured out how to handle it.”
“You had twenty-six Thursdays.”
“I was terrified.”
“So you made me the only person in our family who didn’t know?”
Rachel flinched.
Michael whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“No.”
“You’re sorry because your mother got angry enough to expose you.”
Then Rachel placed a folder on my table.
“There’s something else.”
Michael looked sharply at her.
“Rachel.”
She ignored him.
“There were money transfers.”
My heart sank again.
“What money transfers?”
May you like
Rachel pushed the folder toward me.
“From your joint savings.”
