Chapter 7 - What Adrien's Wife Knew
Dr. Kaplan placed the ledger on the table.
"I started it."
Nobody spoke.
He sat.
Twenty-three years earlier, Kaplan had helped establish the fertility program.
It began legally.
Then demand grew.
Wealthy clients wanted privacy.
Some wanted donor characteristics that weren't available.
Administrators began altering records.
Kaplan discovered it.
He didn't stop them.
He signed forms.
Accepted money.
Told himself nobody was being hurt.
Years became decades.
Then babies grew into adults.
Records mattered.
Medical histories mattered.
Identity mattered.
And lies multiplied.
"Celia discovered it eleven years ago," Kaplan said.
"She threatened to expose us."
Adrien stared.
"Then why didn't she?"
"Because Elena had received treatment through the same network."
Celia feared scandal would destroy her daughter's privacy.
So she helped conceal it.
"Elena found out," Kaplan continued.
"When?"
"During her pregnancy."
"And you let her investigate you?"
"I tried to stop her."
Adrien stood.
I touched his arm.
He stopped.
Kaplan looked at me.
"Grace's death changed Elena."
I stiffened.
"Don't use my daughter to excuse yourself."
"I'm not."
He lowered his eyes.
"Elena saw Grace's record while auditing cases. A baby had died. A mother had been lied to. That made the paperwork real to her."
He handed me a letter.
Elena had written it.
Emma,
I am sorry that I know your daughter's name when you do not know mine.
I stopped.
Couldn't continue.
Rachel read it for me.
Elena promised to expose the clinic.
She had planned to contact me after Luca's birth.
Then she died from complications unrelated to the scheme.
Kaplan had panicked.
He concealed evidence afterward because he feared prosecution.
"But you helped Luca," I said.
"Yes."
"Why?"
He looked at the baby.
"Because cowardice has limits."
It wasn't redemption.
But it was truth.
Federal agents arrived an hour later.
Kaplan surrendered.
The ledger completed the case.
Celia returned voluntarily the next morning and agreed to cooperate.
She admitted covering up records to protect Elena.
Adrien refused to speak to her for weeks.
I understood.
Forgiveness wasn't a switch.
Tyler pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to the cover-up and theft.
He returned my money.
Not voluntarily at first.
Leah made sure of that.
"Your cousin terrifies me," Adrien said.
"Good."
The bakery reopened.
Adrien attended opening morning without security inside.
I had insisted.
"You don't need two men in sunglasses beside the cinnamon rolls."
"You'd be surprised."
"I really wouldn't."
He bought one coffee.
Left a five-dollar tip.
I stared at it.
"What?"
"You're learning."
"I was going to buy the building."
"Adrien."
"I didn't."
"Good."
"I bought the building next door."
I stared at him.
He smiled.
It was the first time I'd seen him genuinely smile.
"Why?"
"Investment."
"You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
Luca grew.
He eventually accepted bottles.
That should have been the end of my role.
It wasn't.
I told myself I visited because he needed consistency.
Then because Adrien needed help.
Then because Teresa made excellent lasagna.
Rachel finally called me out.
"You love him."
I nearly dropped a tray.
"He's a baby."
"Not Luca."
"Shut up."
She smiled.
"You love Adrien."
"No."
"Okay."
"Don't okay me."
"Okay."
I hated sisters.
Mostly because they knew where you kept every emotional body.
Weeks later, Adrien came to the bakery after closing.
No guards.
No expensive coat.
Just jeans and a dark sweater.
He looked almost normal.
"Where's Luca?"
"With Teresa."
"Is he okay?"
"He's perfect."
I smiled before I could stop myself.
"Good."
Adrien approached the counter.
"I need to tell you something."
Every romantic instinct I possessed immediately tried to escape through the emergency exit.
"That sounds ominous."
"It probably is."
"Adrien—"
"I don't want to buy you."
"Excellent opening."
"I don't want to rescue you."
"Improving."
"And I don't want gratitude confused with anything else."
I stopped joking.
He continued.
"I loved Elena."
"I know."
"I still do."
"I know."
"But grief didn't kill everything else inside me."
My heart began pounding.
"Adrien."
"I think about you when you're not there."
I looked down.
"I look for your car."
"That's slightly creepy."
"Emma."
"Sorry."
"I wait for you to insult my coffee."
"It's terrible."
"I know."
He came closer.
"I don't know what this is."
"Neither do I."
"But I'd like the chance to find out."
I wanted to say yes.
God, I wanted to.
Then the bakery door opened.
Rachel stood there.
Her face was white.
"Emma."
I knew instantly something was wrong.
"What?"
She held up her phone.
"The hospital called."
My chest tightened.
"Why?"
Rachel looked at Adrien.
Then at me.
"They found something in Grace's original medical records."
I couldn't breathe.
"What?"
May you like
She swallowed.
"It changes everything we thought we knew about the night she died."
