Chapter 6 - The Father Interview)
They repeated the tests in Naomi's office under the observation of two independent witnesses.
This time the samples never left their sight. A mobile laboratory processed them in a secured room. The result confirmed Adrian's paternity of all four boys and Elena's maternity. The false correction had used a stranger's sample under Cameron's seal number.
Someone had chosen the smallest child, the one removed from the neonatal unit for forty-seven minutes.
“Your mother is trying to create confusion around Cameron's identity,” Naomi said. “The question is why.”
Adrian looked at the four boys building a tower from law books in the corner of the office. “She will not touch any of them.”
Naomi obtained a temporary protective order preventing Evelyn from contacting the children. The judge denied Evelyn's guardianship request and criticized the publicity surrounding it. It was a legal victory, but the judge also ordered Adrian and Elena to create a temporary parenting agreement.
For the first time, their private history became a schedule.
Adrian would see the boys every afternoon in Elena's presence. He would not take them to a Hartwell property. He would not introduce staff without Elena's approval. He would not discuss the investigation unless the boys asked direct questions.
The arrangement bruised his pride until he understood that pride had no place in it.
On the first afternoon, the boys conducted their father interview.
They sat Adrian at Elena's folding table. Caleb held the handwritten list. Connor kept score. Cole asked follow-up questions. Cameron ate crackers and occasionally changed the subject.
“Do you like dinosaurs?” Caleb began.
“Yes.”
Connor marked a point.
“Do you know how to fix a bicycle chain?”
“No, but I can learn.”
Half a point.
“Are you afraid of blood?” Cole asked.
“Not usually.”
“Mom is, but she pretends.”
Elena, cooking soup at the stove, said, “Your mother can hear you.”
“Would you leave us if your work told you to?” Caleb asked.
The room became quiet.
Adrian set down the pencil they had given him. “No.”
“What if you lose all your money?”
“No.”
“What if Grandma says to?”
“Especially then.”
Caleb considered the answer. Connor awarded two points.
“Last question,” Cameron announced, though many remained. “Can we call you Dad?”
Elena turned from the stove.
Adrian's throat tightened. “You can call me anything that feels right. You do not owe me that word.”
Cameron nodded. “Okay, Adrian.”
The others laughed. So did Elena, reluctantly at first, then with the open warmth Adrian remembered.
For one evening, conspiracy remained outside the apartment. Adrian burned grilled cheese. Cole demonstrated the correct way to cut sandwiches. Connor showed him a school project about bridges. Caleb asked whether Adrian had brothers. Cameron fell asleep against his shoulder during a cartoon.
Adrian stayed perfectly still for forty minutes because he could not bear to wake him.
When it was time to leave, Elena walked Adrian to the hallway.
“You did well,” she said.
“I scored twenty-three and a half out of forty.”
“That is the highest first-interview score on record.”
“How many applicants?”
“One.”
They smiled, then remembered how dangerous smiling at each other could be.
“Elena,” he said, “I am sorry.”
“You have said that.”
“Not for the right thing. My mother began this. Martin carried it out. But I let a cruel message become an excuse not to fight for you. If I had come back, if I had asked one neighbor or checked one hospital, I might have found you.”
Elena leaned against the doorframe. “I spent years imagining what I would say if you appeared. Most versions involved throwing something.”
“You still can.”
“The boys like the lamp.”
He waited.
“I am not ready to forgive you,” she said. “But I believe you did not send the message.”
For Adrian, it was enough to breathe again.
His temporary apartment was a modest furnished rental Naomi had found under a trust Evelyn could not reach. As he entered, he noticed that the security strip on the door had been cut.
He called his guard and waited in the hallway until the apartment was cleared.
Nothing appeared stolen. On the kitchen counter sat the emerald ring box.
Adrian had left it with Celeste. Celeste had returned it to Evelyn. He had not seen it since.
Inside the box, the emerald ring was gone.
In its place lay a miniature hospital bracelet.
The faded label read CAMERON HARTWELL.
On the reverse, someone had written a telephone number.
Adrian called from a secure line.
Martin answered.
“Your mother knows I contacted you,” he said. “I have one chance to explain. Come alone to the old Hartwell boathouse tomorrow at six.”
May you like
“Why does Cameron have a bracelet with my surname?”
“Because for forty-seven minutes, your mother believed he belonged to her.”
