Chapter 2 - The Date That Changed Everything
Adam found out exactly how pregnant Nora was forty-three minutes later.
And the answer nearly knocked the air from his lungs.
He had told himself he was only going downstairs because he needed coffee.
Lena didn’t believe him.
Neither did Adam.
The resort lobby shimmered beneath enormous glass chandeliers. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, Lake Michigan stretched toward the horizon, impossibly blue beneath the afternoon sun.
Adam spotted Nora near the elevators.
Caleb stood beside her.
Nora saw Adam first.
Her smile disappeared.
Not dramatically.
That somehow made it worse.
There was no devastation in her expression.
Only recognition.
“Adam.”
He stopped several feet away.
“Nora.”
Caleb’s gaze moved between them.
He offered Adam none of the nervousness most men displayed around someone else’s husband.
“Mercer.”
“Ross.”
They had met twice before.
Once at a charity gala where Caleb had donated four million dollars before Adam could finish bragging about his hundred-thousand-dollar contribution.
And once during an acquisition battle that Adam’s client had lost spectacularly to Caleb’s company.
Adam had disliked him ever since.
Now Caleb’s hand rested lightly at Nora’s waist.
Adam stared at it.
Nora noticed.
“So,” Adam said, “this is unexpected.”
Her eyebrow lifted.
“What is?”
“You being here.”
“I’m allowed to travel.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“I know.”
Caleb glanced at Nora.
“You want me to give you two a minute?”
Before she could answer, Adam said, “Yes.”
Caleb ignored him.
He waited for Nora.
That tiny detail irritated Adam more than it should have.
“I’m fine,” Nora said. “Stay.”
Adam swallowed.
“Apparently things have changed.”
Nora looked down at her belly.
“Apparently.”
“How far along are you?”
The question sounded uglier once spoken aloud.
Nora’s face changed.
Caleb’s did too.
“Twenty-nine weeks,” she said.
Adam stopped breathing.
Twenty-nine.
He calculated automatically.
Seven months.
Then calculated again because the first answer couldn’t possibly be correct.
Fourteen months separated.
Eight months since the affair with Lena had begun.
Twenty-nine weeks pregnant.
Adam looked at Nora.
She understood immediately.
“No.”
His voice came out rough.
“Nora—”
“Don’t.”
“Is the baby—”
“Do not finish that sentence.”
Caleb stepped forward.
Nora touched his arm.
“I can handle this.”
Adam barely heard them.
His mind was racing backward through dates.
Christmas.
The snowstorm.
The night Nora had called because a pipe had burst at the house.
Adam had gone over.
They had argued.
Then apologized.
Then spent one confused, emotional night pretending their marriage hadn’t already fallen apart.
He remembered leaving before sunrise.
He remembered Nora standing in the hallway wearing his old Michigan sweatshirt.
He remembered telling her they shouldn’t make the night mean something it didn’t.
Twenty-nine weeks.
“Oh, God.”
Nora’s eyes hardened.
“You figured it out.”
Adam stared at her belly.
“That’s my child.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
Nora became very still.
“No,” she said.
Adam looked up.
“What?”
“You contributed DNA. Whether you become anything more than that remains to be seen.”
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since January.”
It was September.
Adam felt physically ill.
“You’ve known for eight months?”
“Almost.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I tried.”
His anger stopped.
Nora reached into her handbag.
She removed her phone.
A few taps.
Then held it toward him.
Seventeen unanswered calls.
All made during one week in January.
Below them were messages.
Adam, please call me. This is important.
I went to the doctor today.
We need to talk in person.
Then one final message.
I’m pregnant.
Adam stared.
His stomach dropped.
“I never saw this.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“The messages were marked read.”
Adam remembered January.
He and Lena had been in Aspen.
Lena hated interruptions.
He had handed his second phone to his assistant and ordered him to filter anything “nonessential.”
Nora had apparently qualified.
“I…”
Nothing came.
Nora put the phone away.
“I drove to your condo.”
Adam’s face went cold.
“When?”
“January seventeenth.”
He remembered that night too.
Lena had been there.
Nora continued.
“I stood outside your door for ten minutes.”
Adam closed his eyes.
“I heard her laughing.”
“Nora—”
“And then I heard you tell her you wished you had met her five years earlier.”
Lena’s voice suddenly came from behind him.
“You told me you were already divorced.”
Everyone turned.
She stood beside a marble column, pale beneath her makeup.
Adam’s world seemed to tilt.
“I said separated.”
“No.” Lena approached slowly. “You said the papers were finished.”
Nora gave a small, humorless laugh.
“Apparently we both got different versions.”
Lena looked at Nora.
Then her belly.
For the first time, there was no competition in her face.
Only realization.
“When did he leave you?”
Nora answered quietly.
“He didn’t.”
Adam looked at her.
Nora’s eyes remained on Lena.
“I asked him to leave after I found the hotel receipts.”
Silence.
Lena turned toward Adam.
“You told me she threw you out because she didn’t support your career.”
Adam’s mouth opened.
Nothing came.
Caleb looked almost fascinated.
“Impressive,” he murmured.
Adam snapped toward him.
“Stay out of my marriage.”
Caleb’s expression hardened.
“Someone should have told you that eight months ago.”
Adam stepped forward.
Nora moved between them.
“Enough.”
Both men stopped.
Her hand went instinctively to her belly.
Then she winced.
Caleb noticed immediately.
“Nora?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Adam watched the exchange.
Something inside him twisted.
“You’ve been taking her to appointments?”
Caleb looked at Nora before answering.
“Some.”
Adam laughed bitterly.
“You think you can just walk into my place?”
Caleb stared at him.
“I didn't take your place.”
His next words landed harder.
“You abandoned it.”
The elevator doors opened.
Nora stepped inside.
Caleb followed.
Adam moved forward.
“Nora.”
She looked at him.
“For what it’s worth,” Adam said, struggling to breathe, “I would have come if I’d known.”
Nora studied him for a long moment.
“That,” she whispered, “is what makes it worse.”
The doors began closing.
Adam frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Nora’s eyes met his through the narrowing gap.
“Because you’re about to find out what happened the night I stopped trying to reach you.”
May you like
The doors closed.
And Adam realized the pregnancy wasn’t the secret that frightened him anymore.
