I looked at him over the oxygen mask.
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes.
For one second, relief softened his face.
Then the lost months seemed to hit him all at once.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
I wanted to explain everything.
The photographs.
The recording.
The threats against my mother.
The messages that never reached him.
The lawyers who told me he wanted no direct contact.
But another contraction seized me before I could speak.
At the hospital, nurses hurried me through a set of double doors.
Ethan tried to follow, but a nurse stopped him at the entrance.
“We need to examine her.
Someone will update you.”
“I’m her husband.”
I almost corrected him.
The divorce papers had not been finalized, but emotionally we had lived apart for eight months.
Hearing him claim the word husband felt painful and comforting at the same time.
The doors shut between us.
Ethan found my old phone in the side pocket of my bag.
Its screen was cracked, and it had no active service, but the battery still held a small charge.
He typed LILY.
The phone unlocked.
There was only one audio file on the home screen.
FOR ETHAN.
He pressed play.
A woman inhaled shakily before speaking.
“Mr.
Brooks, my name is Marisol Vega.
I worked as your mother’s executive assistant for six years.
If you are hearing this, Claire has decided she can no longer remain silent.”
Ethan recognized the voice.
Marisol had resigned abruptly the week after I disappeared.
Evelyn had told him she had stolen confidential documents and fled before an internal investigation.
The recording continued.
“Your mother ordered me to intercept Claire’s calls and remove her name from your private schedule.
She instructed the communications department to route every message from Claire to her office.
She also paid Gabriel Mott to photograph you entering the Sterling Hotel with Sabrina Vale.
The photographs shown to Claire were cropped to hide the other executives attending the merger dinner.”
Ethan’s grip tightened around the phone.
“The audio recording Claire heard was edited,” Marisol said.
“You were discussing a regulatory problem, not a pregnancy.
Your actual words were, ‘Handle the filing before it becomes a problem.’ Mrs.
Brooks removed the word filing and inserted a different phrase recorded from another conversation.”
Footsteps clicked down the corridor.
Evelyn appeared with two company security officers behind her.
“Give me the phone,” she said.
Ethan turned up the volume.
Marisol’s voice echoed through the waiting area.
“Mrs.
Brooks threatened Claire’s mother’s mortgage and medical coverage.
She told Claire that the family would portray her as unstable and seek custody of the child.
