Chapter 8 - The Child Adrian Had Already Chosen)
The doctor said the baby was safe.
Mara cried only after hearing the heartbeat.
Until then she had remained almost unnaturally still.
Adrian stood near the door of the examination room, not because he wanted distance but because Mara had asked for it.
Emma arrived forty minutes later carrying dry clothes.
She hugged Mara and then glared at Adrian.
"You."
Adrian almost smiled.
"Me."
"You caused enough trouble."
"I know."
"No, I don't think you do."
Mara wiped her face.
"Emma."
"What?"
"He didn't write the note."
Emma stopped.
Adrian looked at Mara.
"You know?"
"Bianca admitted enough."
The room became quiet.
Emma looked from one to the other.
Then pointed at Adrian.
"You still should have found her."
"I tried."
"Try harder."
Mara almost laughed.
It hurt.
But the sound mattered.
Later, after Emma left to arrange temporary housing, Adrian remained.
Mara sat beside the window in borrowed clothes.
"You knew me as Cole," he said.
"Yes."
"I should have told you."
"Yes."
"I was going to."
"I know."
He looked surprised.
"How?"
"You looked guilty every time I asked what you did for a living."
A faint smile appeared.
Then disappeared.
"Mara, I never left you."
"I know that now."
"I woke up asking for you."
She looked away.
"Don't tell me things because I'm pregnant."
"I'm telling you because they're true."
"Those are not always different things to men like you."
He accepted the blow.
She continued.
"I spent months believing you decided I wasn't worth a phone call."
"I spent months believing you left because you found out who I was."
"Bianca did that."
"With help."
"Sebastian?"
"He admits he let her investigate you."
Mara's expression hardened.
"He also asked me if I knew you."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Adrian stared.
"Why?"
"I think he wanted to know whether the baby could be yours."
He walked toward the window.
"The trust."
"I don't want it."
"It's not money for you."
"It is to them."
Adrian turned.
"Mara, listen carefully. I don't care what the trust says."
"You can afford not to."
"That's true."
The honesty caught her off guard.
He continued.
"But my child will never be treated like a voting mechanism."
Mara placed a hand on her stomach.
"Your child."
Adrian's voice softened.
"If you'll allow me to be part of this."
"You believe me?"
"About what?"
"That the baby is yours."
"I believe you."
"You don't want a test?"
"For legal protection, eventually. Not because I doubt you."
Mara looked at him for a long time.
Then she whispered, "I was afraid to find you."
"Why?"
"I thought you might think I came for money."
His face tightened.
"Bianca built that fear too."
"No. The world built that one."
Adrian sat in the chair opposite her.
"Then I'll spend as long as necessary proving I'm not asking you to trust the world."
The door opened.
Nathan entered carrying two folders.
"We have a problem."
Adrian stood.
"Which one?"
"The board received a medical declaration six weeks ago saying you're permanently neurologically impaired."
Mara looked at Adrian.
Nathan continued.
"Your signature is attached."
"It's forged."
"I know."
"Who submitted it?"
"Dr. Malcolm Vale."
Adrian's face changed.
Mara noticed.
"Who is that?"
"My family's physician."
Nathan nodded.
"And a trustee."
Adrian's jaw hardened.
"Where is he?"
"Missing."
The room went silent.
Nathan placed the second folder on the table.
"We pulled archived communications from the clinic in Italy."
He opened it.
"There was an unauthorized visitor the night before your brake-line report disappeared."
Adrian looked down at a security photograph.
The image was grainy.
But the woman entering the records room was unmistakable.
Bianca.
Mara whispered, "She knew about the accident too."
Nathan shook his head.
"She knew something."
Adrian stared at the photograph.
Then at Mara.
The conspiracy had grown.
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What began as stolen letters and jealousy now reached into attempted murder, forged medical records, and control of a fortune.
And somewhere between all of it was the unborn child Mara had been trying simply to protect.
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