“Mom,” Chloe said, running ahead, “it’s beautiful here.”
Aiden nodded.
“I like it too.”
I looked at them and listened to the birds, the wind, the ordinary peace of the place.
After everything we had been through, maybe we had finally found the quiet life we were meant to have.
People lie to themselves in strange ways. They tell themselves that success can replace anything, that money can repair whatever has been broken. It cannot.
Trust and respect inside a family are not things money can buy back. When they are gone, a person finally realizes those small, ordinary things were the foundation of everything.
Back in New York, silence settled into David’s office after Steven left. Megan turned toward her brother almost at once.
“Did you hear him? Kate isn’t joking. She’s going all the way with this.”
David stared at the folder on his desk. Bank statements. Purchase agreements. Transfer records. Every page was another piece of proof he could not explain away.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked at last.
“Find Kate.”
Pride and reality battled inside him. Finally he said, “She’s out of the country.”
“Then fly there.”
He gave a bitter laugh.
“You think it’s that simple? What if she doesn’t want to see me?”
“At least you’ll have tried.”
Before he could answer, his phone vibrated again. Allison.
He stared at the name before accepting the call.
“What now?”
Her voice was weak.
“I’m still in the hospital.”
“So?”
“The doctor says I’m having a threatened miscarriage. I need bed rest for a few days.”
David said nothing. By then, whatever sympathy he might once have had was gone. In its place was pure exhaustion.
“Can you come see me?”
“No.”
Allison began crying.
“David, I don’t have anyone but you.”
He answered coldly.
“You’re wrong. You have the father of your child.”
Silence.
Then, in a trembling voice, she asked, “Do you really not believe me at all?”
“No.”
He ended the call.
Megan looked at him.
“That was harsh.”
“Do you think I still have any feeling left?”
A little later Andrew knocked on the door.
“David, there’s another issue.”
He looked up tiredly.
“The bank just called. They’re demanding a debt repayment plan within three days.”
David smiled without humor.
“Three days?”
Andrew didn’t need to finish the sentence. Everyone in the room understood what would happen if he failed.
Asset confiscation.
Megan said it again.
“You need to find Kate.”
David looked toward the window, where the evening light had begun to fade. Another memory surfaced: the day Aiden was born. Catherine, pale and exhausted in the delivery room, smiling anyway.
