Chapter 5 - The Husband Before the Husband
Elena refused to see Adrian the next morning.
The message came through Detective Keene.
“She says she needs time.”
Adrian stared at the hospital wall.
“Did she say why?”
“She said your face is connected to too many bad rooms.”
That sentence followed him home.
Maisie was drawing at the dining table.
Three women.
One man.
Two little girls.
Adrian pointed to them one at a time.
“Who’s this?”
“Mommy.”
“This?”
“Aunt Evie.”
“This?”
“Me.”
“And this?”
Maisie covered the second little girl with her hand.
“My sister.”
“What’s her name?”
Maisie’s eyes flicked toward the hallway.
“Not supposed to say.”
“You can say anything here.”
She whispered, “Lily.”
Adrian sat slowly.
“What happened to Lily?”
“Doctor took her.”
“Which doctor?”
“Not Harrow.”
“Who?”
Maisie shook her head.
“Mommy called him David.”
Adrian’s phone rang.
Nolan.
“I found Elena’s first marriage.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Come over.”
Twenty minutes later, Nolan put a photocopied certificate on the table.
ELENA MERCER.
DAVID ROWE.
Married in New Hampshire seven years before Elena met Adrian.
No divorce record.
No annulment.
Adrian stared at the page.
“So my marriage was invalid.”
“Legally complicated.”
“Don’t.”
Nolan stopped.
“Who is David Rowe?”
“That is the problem.”
“There’s always a problem.”
“David Rowe officially died nine years ago.”
Adrian laughed without humor.
“Of course he did.”
“Car accident. Body identified by dental records.”
“Let me guess. Vale-affiliated examiner.”
Nolan nodded.
Maisie colored silently nearby.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Do you think Elena knew he was alive?”
“I think Elena believed he was dead.”
“Then why hide the marriage?”
“Maybe she wasn’t hiding from you.”
“Who, then?”
Nolan looked toward Maisie.
“Your family.”
That afternoon Elena agreed to speak by video.
Not in person.
Adrian sat in the study with the laptop open.
When her face appeared, he nearly lost the ability to speak.
“Elena.”
She flinched at her name.
He corrected himself.
“Lena.”
Her eyes lifted.
“Maisie said you call her Mouse.”
A tiny, broken smile.
“She hates socks.”
Adrian swallowed.
“She still does.”
Elena covered her mouth.
For several seconds neither spoke.
Then Adrian asked, “Who is David Rowe?”
Fear returned immediately.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“Maisie.”
Elena looked away.
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you married to him?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I thought he was dead. Because your father knew him. Because the first time I said David’s name in front of your mother, she dropped a glass.”
Adrian leaned toward the screen.
“What was David involved in?”
Elena’s voice lowered.
“Harbor House.”
“What is that?”
“A maternity charity.”
Nolan, beside Adrian, stiffened.
Elena continued.
“It wasn’t a charity. It was a pipeline. Poor women, immigrant women, girls in foster care. They were told their babies died. Babies were moved through private adoptions.”
Adrian felt sick.
“My family?”
“Your father financed it.”
“No.”
“I saw the accounts.”
“My father built hospitals.”
“He built doors.”
Adrian looked down.
“What did David do?”
“He was an attorney. He helped create the trusts.”
“And you married him?”
“I didn’t know.”
“When did you learn?”
“After his death. I found files.”
“And then?”
“I spent years trying to identify the children.”
“Why not police?”
Elena laughed softly.
“I tried.”
Nolan shifted.
Elena saw him on the screen.
“You.”
Nolan froze.
“You came to my office.”
“I did.”
“You told me to stop using regular channels.”
“Yes.”
“And three weeks later I disappeared.”
Adrian turned toward Nolan.
“What?”
Nolan’s face hardened.
“I warned her.”
“You met Elena before she vanished?”
“Yes.”
“You never told me.”
“She made me promise.”
Adrian stood.
“You let me bury her.”
“I thought she was dead.”
“You knew she was investigating my family.”
“Yes.”
“Get out.”
“Elena,” Nolan said to the screen, “tell him why.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Because I asked him to protect you from the investigation.”
Adrian stared.
“Protect me?”
“I didn’t know what you knew.”
“That’s not protection.”
“I loved you.”
“You investigated me.”
“I investigated everyone.”
The words hurt because they sounded like her.
Careful. Honest. Unforgiving of easy answers.
Adrian sat again.
“What happened the night you disappeared?”
Elena breathed slowly.
“I was pregnant.”
He went still.
“You knew?”
“Seven weeks.”
“Maisie is five.”
“I was held for almost a year before she was born.”
Adrian’s stomach twisted.
“They kept you pregnant in captivity?”
“They kept me alive because they wanted leverage.”
“Against whom?”
“David.”
Adrian stared.
“You just said he was dead.”
“I thought he was.”
“Then why leverage?”
“Because the people holding me didn’t.”
Silence.
Elena continued.
“When Maisie and Lily were born, Harrow separated them immediately. Evelyn had infiltrated the facility by then. She kept Maisie near me whenever she could.”
“Why Maisie?”
“Lily had a mark.”
“What kind of mark?”
“A birthmark shaped like a crescent behind her ear.”
Adrian waited.
“So?”
Elena’s face tightened.
“David had the same mark.”
The room went still.
Adrian felt something break very quietly inside him.
“You’re saying Lily might not be mine.”
Elena began crying.
“I don’t know.”
“But Maisie?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“Did you—”
“No.” Her voice sharpened. “I never saw David after I married you. But Harrow used stored embryos and fertility records. They drugged me. They controlled medical care. I do not know what they did.”
Adrian stopped.
Horror replaced jealousy so completely that he hated himself for the question.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena looked exhausted.
“I need you to understand something. They did not only steal years. They made certainty impossible.”
Adrian nodded.
“Then we rebuild it.”
“How?”
“One fact at a time.”
Maisie entered the study carrying her drawing.
She saw the screen.
“Mommy!”
Elena collapsed into tears.
Maisie pressed both hands to the laptop.
“Mommy, I sold the flowers.”
Elena’s face changed.
“No, baby.”
“I did good.”
“No.”
“I sold almost all.”
“You never had to.”
Maisie’s smile disappeared.
Elena leaned toward the camera.
“Listen to me, Mouse. Selling flowers never made you good. Not selling them never made you bad.”
Maisie started crying.
“They said you’d get the chair if I didn’t.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Adrian turned away.
The child climbed into his lap without asking.
He held her.
On the screen, Elena whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Maisie shook her head.
“You came back.”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“No,” she said softly. “You found him.”
Maisie nodded.
“Aunt Evie told me.”
The screen froze.
Then went black.
Adrian’s phone rang.
Detective Keene.
“Adrian, get Maisie away from the windows.”
“Why?”
“We found a body.”
His heart stopped.
“Who?”
“Not Evelyn. A man.”
“Who?”
Keene hesitated.
“David Rowe.”
Adrian stared at the blank laptop screen.
“Alive?”
“He was.”
May you like
The word hung there.
“Until about two hours ago.”
