Chapter 6 - THE CHILD ALEX NEVER MENTIONED
Alex returned to the hospital at nine.
This time my mother stayed.
He stopped when he saw her.
“Mrs. Miller.”
“Don’t call me that like we’re at Thanksgiving.”
Alex looked exhausted.
Good.
I showed him Valerie’s photograph.
“Who was the baby?”
His face changed.
Not shock.
Recognition.
“Where did you get that?”
“Answer me.”
He looked toward my mother.
“This is between Lucy and me.”
My mother sat down.
“No.”
Alex swallowed.
I waited.
Finally he said, “Valerie had a daughter.”
Had.
Past tense.
Something in me slowed.
“What happened?”
“She was born premature.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
I stared at him.
“Three years ago when Valerie was supposedly living in London?”
“Yes.”
“Was the baby yours?”
“No.”
His answer came immediately.
For the first time, I believed him.
“Then why were you involved?”
Alex rubbed his palms together.
“Her father wasn’t around.”
“Who was the father?”
“She never told me.”
“Why did you lie about her being in London?”
“Because you were already uncomfortable with her.”
I almost laughed.
“I was uncomfortable because your ex-girlfriend called you at midnight.”
“She was grieving.”
“Then you tell your wife the truth.”
“I thought I was protecting you from unnecessary drama.”
My mother made a sound under her breath.
Alex ignored it.
I continued.
“March fourteenth.”
His jaw tightened.
“Her daughter was at St. Catherine’s.”
“Three years after being born?”
“She had chronic complications.”
I understood.
“You missed our daughter’s anatomy scan to visit hers.”
His eyes closed.
“She was in surgery.”
“And you chose not to tell me.”
“I knew how it would look.”
“It looked exactly like what it was.”
He opened his eyes.
“Lucy, that child died.”
The anger left the room for one second.
“What?”
“Two days later.”
He sat down heavily.
“Her name was Ava.”
Despite everything, grief entered my chest.
Not for Alex.
For a little girl I had never known existed.
“Valerie had no one.”
I looked at him.
“She had you.”
“Yes.”
“For three years.”
He nodded.
“And every time she called, you went.”
Silence.
I suddenly understood the elevator.
Not completely.
But enough.
Alex had spent years training himself to respond to Valerie’s emergencies.
Every call.
Every crisis.
Every breakdown.
Every midnight problem.
He had built a reflex around her.
When those doors opened, instinct did not send him toward his wife.
It sent him toward the woman he had spent three years rescuing.
“That’s why you chose her.”
Alex stared at the floor.
“I heard her screaming.”
“You heard me say your name.”
His head lifted.
He had forgotten that.
I saw it.
“You heard me.”
He whispered, “Yes.”
My mother stood up.
She crossed the room and opened the door.
“Leave.”
Alex remained seated.
“Lucy, I made a terrible call.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You made hundreds of small choices before you ever entered that elevator.”
He went still.
“That rescue didn’t destroy our marriage.”
May you like
My voice barely shook.
“It revealed it.”
