Chapter 2 - Jonathan Sees Three Familiar Faces
Jonathan Vance forgot there was a bride standing beside him.
For several seconds, he simply stared down the long white aisle.
At me.
Then at Liam.
Noah.
Caleb.
Three five-year-old boys in midnight-blue velvet tuxedos, each with dark
wavy hair and the same sharp gray eyes Jonathan saw every morning in his
own mirror.
Victoria Cross followed his gaze.
Her smile disappeared.
“Jonathan?”
He did not answer.
I took one hand from each of the boys and walked toward the seating
area.
I had no intention of interrupting the ceremony.
The invitation said four o’clock.
I arrived at three forty-five.
If the Vances wanted me at Table 27, I would sit at Table 27.
That was when Eleanor came down the marble steps.
She did not look at me first.
She looked at the children.
Her face had gone so pale that one of the staff members reached for her
elbow.
She jerked away.
“What is this?”
I smiled.
“You invited me.”
Her voice dropped.
“Who are those children?”
Liam looked up at me.
“Mama, is that the mean grandma?”
Half the nearest guests heard him.
I closed my eyes briefly.
We had discussed discretion in the car.
Five-year-olds had their own interpretation of strategy.
Jonathan started walking toward us.
His father’s best friend, Richard Hale, stepped into his path.
“Jonathan. Not now.”
Jonathan shoved his hand away.
“Yes. Now.”
He stopped six feet from me.
His eyes moved over the boys again.
“How old are they?”
I did not answer immediately.
Jonathan’s jaw tightened.
“Claire.”
“Five.”
The color left his face.
Our divorce had been finalized five years and seven months earlier.
I had discovered the pregnancy three weeks after I left the Vance
mansion.
Jonathan looked at me as though the estate had disappeared around us.
“Are they mine?”
Before I could answer, Eleanor said sharply:
“No.”
Every head turned toward her.
She had answered too quickly.
Jonathan looked at his mother.
“How would you know?”
Eleanor opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
And that was the first moment I realized something I had never
considered.
May you like
Eleanor was not shocked because she had just discovered I had children.
She was terrified because she already knew.
