Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT MY DAUGHTER ARRIVED
There is something surreal about being wheeled into labor and delivery while your sister is still holding a laptop containing evidence against your husband.
“Put that away,” I gasped.
June looked at the computer.
“Right.”
Another contraction tore through me.
“Actually, throw it at Gavin.”
The nurse laughed.
I didn’t.
Well, maybe a little.
My daughter was five weeks early.
That became the only fact that mattered.
Not Gavin.
Not Maren.
Not the house.
Not money.
Her.
Doctors moved quickly.
Steroid injections.
Monitors.
Questions.
Contractions.
My mother held one hand.
June held the other.
At 11:20 p.m., someone asked the question I had been dreading.
“Do you want us to contact the baby’s father?”
I closed my eyes.
Legally and emotionally were suddenly two different worlds.
Gavin had betrayed me.
But he was still her father.
“Yes.”
June made the call.
He arrived thirty-six minutes later.
I knew because I watched the clock.
He entered looking terrified.
For once, I believed the emotion.
“Tess.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“I just want to know if she’s okay.”
“They’re monitoring her.”
He moved closer.
June stood between us.
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
June stared at him.
“Interesting choice of words.”
“June.”
“No.”
I squeezed her hand.
“It’s okay.”
She reluctantly moved.
Gavin stood beside the bed.
For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then the fetal monitor accelerated.
He stared at it.
His eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked away.
Not because I forgave him.
Because some apologies arrive after the damage has already changed shape.
At 2:14 a.m., our daughter’s heart rate dropped.
The room filled with people.
A nurse placed oxygen over my face.
Someone called the obstetrician.
Someone else told Gavin to move.
Then everything happened at once.
Emergency C-section.
Consent forms.
Bright lights.
Cold operating room.
My mother crying.
June telling me she loved me.
Gavin standing at the hallway doors because I had chosen June as my support person.
At 2:47 a.m., Evelyn Rose Mercer entered the world weighing five pounds, three ounces.
She cried immediately.
I had never heard anything so beautiful.
June sobbed.
I sobbed.
The nurse brought Evelyn close enough for me to kiss her forehead before they took her to the neonatal unit.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s breathing well.”
That became my entire universe.
Breathing well.
Later, in recovery, I woke to voices outside.
Gavin.
Maren.
I thought I was dreaming.
Then Maren said:
“You shouldn’t be here.”
I opened my eyes.
June was asleep in the chair.
I pressed the call button.
Before the nurse arrived, the voices grew louder.
“She’s my daughter,” Gavin said.
“And Tessa is your wife.”
“Not for much longer.”
“You did this.”
“So did you.”
Silence.
Then Maren said something I never expected.
“No. I slept with a married man. I betrayed my best friend. I own that. But I didn’t forge documents. I didn’t steal money. I didn’t lie about Tessa cheating so I could justify what I wanted.”
Gavin’s voice dropped.
“You think she’ll forgive you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you helping her?”
“Because helping you was the worst thing I ever did.”
The nurse entered.
I whispered, “Please ask them to leave.”
Gavin was allowed back the next morning after I agreed.
He stood beside Evelyn’s incubator.
Our daughter had a tiny pink hat.
Her hand barely wrapped around my fingertip.
Gavin cried.
Real tears.
For one dangerous second, I remembered the man I had married.
The man who danced with me barefoot in our kitchen.
Who drove forty minutes at midnight because I wanted a particular ice cream.
Who cried when the pregnancy test turned positive.
I hated that those memories were still real.
People wanted betrayal to erase love retroactively.
It didn’t.
That was what made betrayal betrayal.
You could only destroy trust that had once existed.
“She has your nose,” he whispered.
“She has her own nose.”
He smiled faintly.
Then looked at me.
“Can we fix this?”
“No.”
The answer came easily.
His face crumpled.
“Tess—”
“You can fix yourself. You can be a good father if you choose to become one. You can return the money. You can tell the truth.”
“And us?”
“There is no us.”
He lowered his head.
For once, he didn’t argue.
Three days later, Evelyn came off oxygen.
Five days later, she moved out of intensive care.
Seven days later, I held her in my own nursery.
The same nursery Maren had wanted.
Nothing had been repainted.
Nothing had been taken.
I thought the worst was over.
Then Rebecca called.
“Tessa, we found where the forty-eight thousand went.”
“Crane?”
“No.”
“Restaurant?”
“No.”
I shifted Evelyn against my chest.
“Then where?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Gavin paid a private investigator.”
My blood chilled.
“To investigate whom?”
“You.”
I stared through the nursery window.
“Why?”
“That’s the problem.”
Rebecca paused.
“The investigator wasn’t hired to prove you were cheating.”
May you like
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“He was hired to find your biological father.”
