Chapter 2 - THE QUESTION ROSA COULD NOT ESCAPE
The ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
Paramedics placed Lily on a small stretcher.
She had a cut behind her ear and swelling along her shoulder.
Rosa climbed into the ambulance beside her.
Ethan followed.
Victoria blocked the doors.
“You are leaving our guests for a maid’s child?”
Ethan looked at her.
“There will be no dinner tonight.”
“My parents are already driving from Manhattan.”
“Call them.”
“You cannot cancel because a child fell.”
Ethan’s voice became dangerously calm.
“She did not fall.”
Victoria stepped backward.
The ambulance doors closed.
At Greenwich Hospital, Lily underwent scans.
Her shoulder was badly bruised but not broken.
She had a mild concussion.
Doctors wanted to observe her overnight.
Rosa sat beside the hospital bed while Lily slept with Button beneath her chin.
Ethan stood near the window.
Neither spoke for several minutes.
Finally, he asked again.
“Is she mine?”
Rosa closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer barely reached him.
Ethan gripped the back of a chair.
“You knew how to find me.”
“Yes.”
“You worked inside my house for two years.”
“Yes.”
“You let me walk past my own daughter.”
Rosa looked at him.
“I let you walk past a child you never noticed.”
The words struck him.
“I noticed her.”
“You noticed that she was sometimes inconvenient.”
“That is not fair.”
“No.”
“What happened to Lily was not fair.”
“What happened to me was not fair.”
“But silence was my choice.”
“I will not pretend otherwise.”
Ethan sat across from her.
“Why didn’t you tell me when you became pregnant?”
“You had stopped answering.”
“I was in the middle of a merger.”
“You disappeared.”
“My father threatened to remove me from the company.”
“I did not know that.”
“You never asked.”
“I tried to call twice.”
“You left no message.”
“I was afraid.”
Rosa looked toward Lily.
“So was I.”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“You thought I would reject her.”
“I thought you would demand proof.”
“I thought your family would call me a liar.”
“I thought lawyers would enter my life before you did.”
“Then the agency placed you in my home.”
“I needed work.”
“You could have refused.”
“My rent was late.”
“Lily needed medicine.”
“Dignity does not pay for food.”
Ethan looked at the sleeping child.
“Did she ever ask about her father?”
“She asked why other children had one.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That some people arrive late.”
Ethan’s eyes filled with pain.
“Three years late.”
The hospital-room door opened.
A police officer entered with the estate’s security director.
The officer introduced herself as Detective Maren Shaw.
She carried a tablet.
“Mr. Caldwell, we reviewed the parlor camera.”
Victoria had insisted no camera covered the piano.
She had been wrong.
A decorative sensor above the fireplace recorded the entire room.
Detective Shaw pressed play.
The video showed Victoria stepping toward Lily.
It showed her gripping the child’s arm.
It showed the shove.
Ethan watched without blinking.
Then the recording continued.
After Lily hit the floor, Victoria looked toward the hallway.
May you like
She whispered,
“Maybe now Rosa will finally leave.”
