He stepped closer.
“Then what are you?”
Madison slid the lab report across the counter.
Nathaniel looked down.
At first, nothing happened.
His eyes moved over the heading.
The date.
His own name.
Then the physician’s conclusion.
The color left his face.
He picked up the page.
“This is confidential.”
“You knew about it?” Madison asked.
Nathaniel did not answer.
That was answer enough.
“You knew.”
“The doctor said unlikely.”
“Extraordinarily unlikely.”
“Not impossible.”
“No,” Madison said.
“Not impossible.”
He clung to those two words instantly.
Madison watched hope and pride cooperate inside him.
“Then there’s nothing to discuss.”
“There’s plenty to discuss.”
He dropped the report on the counter.
“You think Veronica invented a pregnancy to trap me?”
“I think Veronica sent an ultrasound directly to my office twelve days ago.
I think she sent me a voice recording telling me you needed a ‘real family.’ I think she wanted me to confront you before I had all the facts.”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“What recording?”
Madison took out her phone and pressed play.
Veronica’s voice entered the kitchen.
“You don’t understand men like Nathaniel, Mrs.
Pierce.
They don’t stay with women like you.
They stay until they need a real family.”
Nathaniel’s expression fractured.
Madison stopped the recording.
“She sent you that?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before yesterday.”
He picked up his phone.
Madison reached across and placed her hand over it.
“Don’t.”
He looked at her hand as if no one had physically stopped him in years.
“Why?”
“Because if you call her angry, she’ll explain everything away before you know what you’re asking.”
Nathaniel pulled his hand back.
“And you suddenly care whether I’m being lied to?”
Madison met his eyes.
“No.
I care whether I am.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
