Chapter 4 - The Man Outside the Door
Claudia woke to someone saying her name.
“Elena?”
“I’m here.”
Her sister’s hand closed around hers.
“The baby?”
“He’s okay.”
Claudia started crying before she could stop herself.
“A boy?”
“A very loud, very angry boy.”
Claudia laughed through tears.
Born at 6:43 Christmas morning, Noah Reeves Navarro weighed five pounds, eleven ounces.
Small.
Early.
Perfect.
He needed observation in the neonatal unit, but he was breathing without assistance.
Claudia wanted to see him immediately.
The nurse helped her into a wheelchair two hours later.
Sophie stood beside the bassinet wearing an oversized hospital mask.
“He looks like a potato.”
Elena gasped.
“Sophie.”
“A cute potato.”
Claudia laughed so hard her incision hurt.
For a few minutes, everything disappeared.
Porsche.
Sebastian.
Money.
Betrayal.
There was only Sophie, Noah, and the astonishing relief of still being alive.
Then Elena’s husband appeared at the doorway.
His expression changed the room.
“What?”
Daniel looked at Claudia.
“Sebastian found us.”
Her pulse accelerated.
“How?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Is he here?”
Daniel nodded.
“Downstairs.”
Sophie turned immediately.
“Dad’s here?”
Claudia closed her eyes.
Of course Sophie wanted him.
That was the problem with love.
Adults could ruin it and children would still reach for what remained.
“Can I see him?” Sophie asked.
Claudia wanted to say no.
Instead, she asked, “Do you want to?”
Sophie nodded.
So Sebastian met his daughter in a hospital chapel.
He had driven through a snowstorm in two hours and seventeen minutes after his security team traced the emergency-contact call through an internal insurance notification.
He looked terrible.
Sophie ran into him.
Sebastian dropped to his knees.
She collided with his chest.
His arms closed around her.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Sophie whispered:
“You missed Christmas.”
“I know.”
“And Noah got born.”
“I know.”
“You missed that too.”
Sebastian shut his eyes.
“I know.”
She pulled back.
“Are you going to leave us for Porsche?”
“No.”
“Did you kiss her?”
Sebastian stared at his ten-year-old daughter.
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
That question was harder.
He refused to lie.
“I liked attention I should have walked away from.”
Sophie frowned.
“That sounds like grown-up cheating.”
Sebastian almost smiled despite himself.
“Maybe it was.”
“Mom cries in the shower.”
The smile disappeared.
Sophie continued.
“She thinks I don’t hear.”
Sebastian looked toward the chapel windows.
For years he had told himself that providing was love.
The house.
Schools.
Vacations.
Security.
College accounts.
He had built a fortress around his family and somehow left them alone inside it.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Sophie studied him.
“Tell Mom.”
“I will.”
Claudia did not let him into her room.
Sebastian accepted it.
He sat outside instead.
One hour.
Then two.
At noon, a nurse found him still there.
At 2:00, Claudia finally asked Elena, “Is he gone?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I imagine because his wife and newborn son are behind that door.”
Claudia stared at her.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not defending him.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I’m defending your right to make a decision based on facts rather than rage.”
Claudia turned toward the window.
Elena placed a phone on her bed.
“Porsche Dunham called.”
Claudia looked back.
“What?”
“She wants to speak to you.”
“No.”
“She says Sebastian didn’t have an affair with her.”
Claudia laughed.
“Convenient.”
“She also says someone has been following you.”
That stopped her.
Elena explained what Sebastian had learned.
The cloned credentials.
The stolen money.
Marcus Vane.
Porsche’s brother.
Claudia listened without interrupting.
When Elena finished, Claudia asked one question.
“Does Sebastian expect this to excuse him?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he told Daniel the opposite.”
Claudia finally allowed Sebastian inside at 4:18.
He stopped near the door.
He looked at her hospital gown.
Her pale face.
The empty bassinet beside the bed.
Then he looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
Claudia waited.
No explanation came.
No defense.
That surprised her.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
“Did you kiss her?”
“No.”
“Did you want her?”
Sebastian took several seconds.
“I wanted the way she made me feel.”
Claudia’s eyes burned.
“And how was that?”
“Important.”
She laughed softly.
“You run a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“I know.”
“Governments hire you.”
“I know.”
“You needed another woman to make you feel important?”
“No.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I needed to stop needing it.”
That answer reached somewhere anger could not.
But it did not repair anything.
Claudia looked at him.
“I don’t trust you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t know whether I love you enough to rebuild this.”
“I know.”
“And I’m not coming home.”
Sebastian nodded.
A long silence followed.
Then he reached into his coat.
He placed Sophie’s handmade mug on the table beside her bed.
“I opened her present.”
Claudia looked at it.
His eyes were red.
“She thought she needed to bother me less.”
Claudia said nothing.
“I did that.”
“Yes.”
He absorbed the answer.
Then Claudia noticed something through the doorway.
A man in hospital scrubs.
Standing too still.
Watching them.
Their eyes met.
The man immediately turned away.
Sebastian saw Claudia’s expression.
“What?”
“That man.”
Sebastian looked.
The hallway was empty.
Claudia’s pulse quickened.
“I’ve seen him before.”
“Where?”
She suddenly remembered.
Three days earlier.
Outside Sophie’s school.
And before that—
across the street from her obstetrician’s office.
Sebastian was already moving.
He reached the hallway.
The man was gone.
On the floor lay a hospital visitor badge.
Sebastian picked it up.
The name was fake.
May you like
But written on the back in black ink were five words:
STOP LOOKING AT THE TRANSFERS, CLAUDIA.
