Chapter 2 - The Look on Evan’s Face
“What does she mean?”
Evan didn’t answer me.
He kept staring at his mother.
“Lenora,” I said, “what does he know?”
She smiled.
Not kindly.
Triumphantly.
“Ask your husband.”
Evan moved between us.
“Leave.”
Lenora laughed.
“This is my son’s house.”
“It’s my house too,” I said.
She ignored me.
Evan’s voice dropped.
“Mom. Go.”
Something in his tone finally made her move.
She grabbed her purse and walked toward the door.
Before stepping outside, she turned toward Maisie.
Her eyes hardened.
“That child was never supposed to be here.”
I felt my entire body go cold.
The door shut.
I looked at Evan.
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Tessa—”
“No.”
Maisie whimpered against me.
I lowered my voice.
“Your mother just attacked our baby and called her a bastard. Then she said you knew why.”
Evan ran both hands through his hair.
“I need a minute.”
“You don’t get one.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he looked toward the glass pitcher on the floor.
Not broken.
Just abandoned.
He stared at it too long.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“What are you looking at?”
He walked toward the coffee table and picked up the hardcover book lying beside it.
My confusion deepened.
“What are you doing?”
Evan opened the book.
Something was hidden inside.
A folded envelope.
My name was written on the front.
TESSA.
I stared.
“What is that?”
Evan went pale.
“I thought she took it.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
“Why was it hidden in our house?”
He didn’t answer.
I reached for it.
Evan pulled it back.
That was the first moment I truly became afraid of him.
“Give me the envelope.”
“Tessa, listen to me first.”
“No. Give it to me.”
Maisie began crying again.
I handed her to my sister Claire, who had arrived after hearing the commotion.
Then I turned back to my husband.
“Evan. Whatever is in that envelope caused your mother to hurt our child.”
He closed his eyes.
Then gave it to me.
Inside was a letter.
From a fertility clinic.
Dated fifteen months earlier.
Two months before Maisie was born.
I read the first line.
Then the second.
And suddenly I understood why Evan had been terrified.
The letter wasn’t addressed to him.
May you like
It was addressed to Lenora.
And it referenced a confidential genetic test she had secretly ordered during my pregnancy.
