Chapter 9 - THE INVITATION
At twenty-one weeks, Amy had her anatomy scan.
Claire sat beside her.
The technician moved the monitor toward them.
“There’s your baby.”
Amy smiled before she could stop herself.
The tiny profile appeared on the screen.
A nose.
Hands.
Feet.
A beating heart.
“Everything looks healthy.”
Amy’s eyes filled with tears.
Then the technician smiled.
“Would you like to know the sex?”
Amy looked at Claire.
Claire raised both hands.
“Your decision.”
Amy thought of Daniel.
The man who did not know where she lived.
The husband she might divorce.
The father of this child regardless of what happened between them.
“Yes.”
The technician looked at the screen.
“You’re having a girl.”
Amy laughed through tears.
“A girl.”
Claire squeezed her hand.
Afterward, they sat in the car overlooking the ocean.
Amy held the new ultrasound photographs.
She opened her phone.
Daniel had sent no messages that morning.
He had started doing something unfamiliar.
Giving her space.
Amy called him.
He answered softly.
“Hi.”
“I had the scan.”
Daniel stood up so quickly his chair rolled backward.
“Is everything okay?”
“She’s healthy.”
Silence.
Then he repeated one word.
“She?”
Amy smiled.
“A girl.”
Daniel covered his face with one hand.
For several seconds he could not speak.
“Amy.”
“She has all ten fingers.”
Daniel laughed softly.
“And ten toes?”
“Yes.”
“Heart?”
“Strong.”
He sat down again.
“Can you send me a picture?”
Amy looked at the ultrasound photograph.
Her first instinct was yes.
Her second was fear.
Sharing felt intimate.
Intimacy felt dangerous.
Then she remembered something Claire had said.
You can let him be her father without promising to be his wife.
Amy took a photograph and sent it.
Daniel received it while still on the call.
His breath caught.
“Oh, my God.”
Amy closed her eyes.
She heard him crying quietly.
Daniel Harrison, who had negotiated billion-dollar contracts without visible emotion, was crying over a grainy black-and-white image.
Amy let him.
Neither spoke for almost a minute.
Then Amy said, “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I have another appointment in four weeks.”
Daniel waited.
“If you want to come, you can.”
The silence on his end became enormous.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Daniel almost laughed.
Amy continued.
“But I think you should see her.”
“I’ll be there.”
She gave him the clinic information.
Then her voice hardened slightly.
“This isn’t reconciliation.”
“I know.”
“You’ll stay at a hotel.”
“I know.”
“You don’t come to where I’m staying.”
“I know.”
Amy paused.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For listening.”
After the call, Daniel immediately canceled a board meeting scheduled for the same day.
His assistant looked surprised.
“That meeting has been planned for six months.”
Daniel stared at the ultrasound image on his phone.
“My daughter has an appointment.”
The words felt strange.
Then they felt right.
May you like
His daughter.
For the first time, Daniel had somewhere more important to be.
