Daniel looked at her and softened his voice again.
“It means I protected you when he would not.”
“By keeping my letter from him?”
“I sent the letter.”
“Then show me the receipt.”
“I don’t carry nine-month-old courier receipts in my pocket.”
“You keep copies of everything.”
“That does not mean—”
“You keep restaurant receipts when they involve a client meeting.
You kept a parking ticket from the day we filed because you billed the time spent contesting it.”
Color rose along Daniel’s neck.
Emma looked down at the folder.
“Where is my letter?”
He said nothing.
A vibration sounded from my phone.
The first report from my legal department had arrived.
I opened it without turning the screen toward anyone.
There had been no courier attempt from Daniel Price’s firm during the week Emma claimed to have sent the letter.
There had been no rejected package.
There had been no contact reporting a pregnancy.
But there had been an envelope from Daniel’s office three days later.
Inside it was a signed instruction attributed to Emma requesting permanent no contact and warning that any personal approach from me would be treated as harassment.
I remembered the document.
It was the reason I stopped driving past the brownstone.
The reason I ignored every instinct that told me our ending had been too clean.
I asked Emma whether she had signed such an instruction.
“No.”
Daniel looked toward the door.
Emma saw him do it.
“Don’t leave,” she said.
“I am not required to remain while he stages a corporate investigation in your home.”
“You told me he wanted no contact.”
“He did.”
“You sent him a letter saying I wanted no contact.”
“That was consistent with your legal position.”
“It was not my position.”
“It was what you needed.”
Emma’s voice went flat.
“That is not the same thing.”
Daniel picked up his jacket from the back of a chair.
“I will address this through proper channels.”
Before he reached the door, my phone rang again.
It was Eleanor Burke.
I answered on speaker.
Her voice came through tense and breathless.
“Miles, I need to tell you why I mentioned the baby tonight.”
Daniel stopped walking.
Eleanor continued.
“Daniel called me last week after I saw Emma outside the pediatric clinic.
He said Emma had a confidential safety arrangement and that I was not to tell you she had given birth.”
Emma closed her eyes.
Daniel turned around slowly.
Eleanor said, “Something about it felt wrong.
He wasn’t asking me to protect Emma.
He was checking whether I had already told you.”
“Do you still have his message?” I asked.
