Chapter 6

I had barely finished speaking when I turned toward the door.

Adrian stepped into my path.

“Ethan, it’s one condo. If it matters that much to you, I’ll give it back. There’s no reason to make Claire suffer over it.”

He kept his voice controlled, but the look he gave me carried none of the helplessness he displayed whenever Claire was watching.

“Move,” I said. “You were willing to take a hundred and eighty-two thousand dollars meant for our home. Don’t pretend you’re protecting her now.”

His jaw tightened. Before he could answer, Claire moved between us.

“That’s enough.”

She faced me, with the printed wire confirmation still lying across her desk.

“You told me to handle the transfer. I should have explained it more clearly, but Adrian couldn’t qualify for a mortgage on his own, so I agreed to co-sign. The money is still in escrow, and I’ve already asked Legal to prepare an agreement requiring him to repay it.”

“That money was for the home you and I were supposed to buy.”

“We can save again.” Her brow furrowed as if she could not understand why that answer failed to settle the matter. “Adrian may never get another chance to own a stable place near his treatment center. You have a career, savings, and options. He doesn’t.”

“You’re acting as if I chose him over you. I didn’t. Adrian needs me right now. You never have.”

Before I could answer, a notification appeared on the monitor behind her.

Brighton Reproductive Medicine.

Claire reached for the mouse, but the message preview had already expanded across the screen.

ADRIAN VALE’S SEMEN ANALYSIS AND GENETIC SCREENING HAVE BEEN CLEARED. CLAIRE BENNETT MAY NOW SCHEDULE HER BASELINE APPOINTMENT AND BEGIN OVARIAN STIMULATION. EMBRYO CREATION AND TRANSFER CONSENTS ARE READY FOR SIGNATURE.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

I looked from the screen to Claire.

“What is that?”

She closed the notification. “This isn’t the place to discuss it.”

“Whose eggs are they planning to use?”

Her lips parted, but no answer came.

“Claire.”

“Mine.”

The word landed with startling clarity.

“And who is carrying the pregnancy?”

She glanced at Adrian before meeting my eyes again.

“I am.”

I had spent years imagining children with her. We had discussed names, schools, and whether we would keep working overseas after our first child was born. Only three months earlier, she had sent me listings for houses with backyards and told me to make sure there was room for a nursery.

Now she stood in front of me and explained that she had agreed to create and carry Adrian’s child.

“He has always wanted a family,” she said. “With everything happening to him, he may not be ready for a relationship for years. He asked me for help, and I agreed to consider it.”

“You completed the screening.”

“I needed to know whether I was medically eligible. Nothing has happened yet.”

Adrian stepped forward. “I told her it was too much. I can cancel the cycle today.”

“No.” Claire turned to him at once. “You don’t have to give up every time Ethan gets upset.”

Then she looked back at me, her tone gentler, as though she were finally offering a compromise.

“It’s IVF. There won’t be any intimacy between us, and this doesn’t change the family you and I planned. Once Adrian’s situation is stable, we can still have children of our own.”

I studied her face and found no uncertainty there. She had already arranged the appointments, completed the tests, and decided what I would be expected to accept.

“Is this your decision?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said after a brief pause. “It is.”

“Then you’ve made your choice.”

Claire frowned. “That isn’t what I said.”

“It’s exactly what you said.”

Claire stared at me. “Ethan, don’t say things you’ll regret.”

“I won’t.”

I walked around them, but Claire called my name before I reached the door.

“You came into my office without warning, accused Adrian in front of my staff, and now you’re refusing to have a reasonable conversation. You need to leave.”

“I was already leaving.”

Her assistant had apparently heard the raised voices. Two security officers were waiting outside when I opened the door.

“Mr. Cole,” one of them said, “we’ve been asked to escort you downstairs.”

Claire stood behind me. Half the people on the executive floor had looked up from their desks, waiting to see what I would do.

“There’s no need to touch me,” I told the officers. “I know where the elevator is.”

Claire believed she was removing me from one argument.

She did not know I was removing myself from her entire life.

I walked between them without looking back. When the elevator doors closed, the last thing I saw was Claire standing outside her office with Adrian beside her.

During the next week, my attorney froze the disputed property transaction while I separated every remaining part of our lives. I redirected my income, closed our shared credit line, transferred the lease to Claire, and packed everything I would take to Nairobi.

The equipment I needed in Nairobi went into two hard cases, while everything else fit into four boxes and one suitcase.

Claire continued sending messages as if this were another argument that would end when I calmed down. She told me Adrian had signed the divorce petition, she was arranging a formal repayment plan, and the wedding venue could still be restored if we acted quickly. She promised to talk to me after his next appointment.

I answered only the messages my attorney told me to answer.

On the day I left, I returned to the apartment for my last suitcase. As I reached behind the desk in the spare bedroom to unplug an external drive, Adrian’s medical file slipped from the edge and fell open. A black notebook and an unlabeled flash drive slid from a concealed sleeve.

I connected the drive to my laptop.

The first file was a psychiatric discharge assessment dated eighteen months earlier.

Adrian was stable. He had not been considered a danger to himself for more than a year, and his doctor had never recommended residential treatment.

I opened the black notebook.

The pages contained dates, locations, and short notes written in Adrian’s hand.

My documentary premiere.

The freeway pileup.

Our house viewing.

Our appointment at City Hall.

Each crisis had occurred on a day Claire was supposed to choose me.

Beside the date of our October wedding, Adrian had written one sentence.

By October, she’ll have already given me everything she promised him.

I copied every file, photographed every page, and sent the evidence to my attorney.

His reply arrived within minutes.

MATERIALS RECEIVED. PRESERVE THE ORIGINALS.

Before boarding, I received another voice message from Claire. She told me Adrian’s collection appointment had been confirmed. Once she took him through the examination, she would come home and we could finally discuss the wedding.

By the time Claire returned to the apartment and saw what I had left on the island, my plane had already left U.S. airspace.

Claire had always believed she could choose Adrian and still come home to me.

This time, she would come home to an empty apartment.