Chapter 2 - The Second Baptism
The next page showed a reservation.
Same hotel chain.
Different location.
Three months in the future.
Private chapel.
Banquet room.
Seventy-five guests.
The reservation had been made under Daniel’s name.
Patricia looked from the document to her son.
“You’re planning another baptism?”
Daniel said nothing.
Robert did.
“Whose child?”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
I watched him search for the safest lie.
That was one thing I had learned during the previous four months.
Daniel rarely answered the question he was asked.
He answered the question that protected him.
“It’s complicated.”
Robert stood.
“No.”
His voice carried across the ballroom.
“It is not complicated.”
He pointed at Lily sleeping peacefully in my mother’s arms.
“That child is your daughter.”
Then he pointed at the folder.
“Who is the other child?”
Daniel looked at me.
There was something almost accusing in his eyes.
As though I had created the pregnancy by printing evidence of it.
I reached into the folder again.
This time, I removed the hotel deposit receipt.
$6,000.
Paid three weeks earlier.
From an account I did not recognize.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
That reaction interested me.
For the first time all afternoon, he did not look afraid of me.
He looked afraid of the paper.
I noticed.
So did Robert.
“What account is that?”
Daniel snatched the receipt.
He scanned the last four digits.
His face changed.
Patricia whispered, “Daniel?”
He folded the receipt in half.
“It’s business money.”
Robert went completely still.
I knew Robert had spent thirty-two years building a regional construction supply company.
Daniel had joined the company eight years earlier.
I also knew Daniel loved telling people he would run it someday.
What I did not know was why a hotel deposit for Chloe’s child had been paid from an account Daniel now called business money.
Robert stepped closer.
“What account?”
Daniel shoved the paper into his jacket.
“Dad, we’ll discuss this privately.”
“No.”
Robert held out his hand.
“Now.”
The banquet manager appeared beside us.
“Mr. Carter, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we do need settlement of the remaining balance.”
Daniel turned toward me.
Even now.
Even after everything.
He expected me to rescue him.
“Jennifer.”
I looked at the bill.
Then at him.
“I already told you.”
I stood and lifted Lily’s diaper bag from the chair.
“Pay for your own performance.”
Daniel’s expression twisted.
“You can’t leave.”
“Yes, I can.”
He lowered his voice.
“If you walk out that door, you will regret it.”
I almost answered.
Then Robert interrupted.
“Daniel.”
His tone was colder than anything I had heard from him before.
“Give me that receipt.”
Daniel refused.
Robert reached into his own pocket and pulled out his phone.
He dialed someone.
“Elaine?”
Daniel’s face lost its remaining color.
Robert continued.
“I need you to freeze Daniel’s corporate access immediately.”
Daniel lunged for the phone.
“Dad!”
Robert stepped away.
“And pull every transaction from account ending 7742.”
Daniel stopped.
The number matched the hotel receipt.
Robert listened for several seconds.
Then his eyes lifted slowly toward his son.
“What do you mean there are thirty-eight transfers?”
The room seemed to shrink.
Daniel whispered, “Dad, listen to me.”
Robert’s face hardened.
“Thirty-eight transfers to whom?”
The voice on the phone answered.
Robert looked directly at me.
Then at Lily.
And finally at Daniel.
May you like
“They all went to Chloe Bennett.”
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