Chapter 2

Henry went quiet. Then, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and let it go.

A second later, mine rang too. It was a number I didn't recognize.

I picked up, and Vera's soft, fragile voice came through the other end, "Ms. Whitaker, it's Vera. I know you're with Henry right now. Could I just say a few words to you?"

I put it on speaker and set the phone on the table.

"Ms. Whitaker, this is all my fault, every last bit of it." Her voice was thick with tears but never grating, the kind of crying designed to make people feel sorry for her.

"I wasn't capable enough to take care of Aiden on my own, so I swallowed my pride and came back to ask Henry for help. He's a good man. He only did it because he felt sorry for the child. Please don't blame him."

She drew a shaky breath. "If you can't accept us being here, I'll take Aiden and leave right now. Even if we die out there, we won't be a burden to either of you."

Then, through the speaker, came the sound of a child coughing, followed by Vera's panicked voice trying to soothe him.

Henry's expression changed completely. He snatched my phone off the table and shouted into it, "Vera, is Aiden having another attack? Don't move him. The medication is in the cabinet. I'm on my way!"

He hung up and looked at me, his face tight with panic, his eyes begging. "Hazel, his asthma is flaring up. This could kill him. I need to go over there. We can talk about everything when we get home, okay?"

I looked at the man standing in front of me. One second he was confessing and apologizing, and the next, the moment he heard something was wrong over there, he was already gone in his head.

I knew him too well. Vera didn't need to throw tantrums or flaunt herself in my face. All she had to do was show him how helpless she was, and she had him wrapped around her finger.

"Go." I leaned back in my chair, my expression flat.

"But Henry, the second you walk out that door, we're done."

Henry faltered mid-step. He looked at me, torn, but in the end he clenched his jaw. "Hazel, this is a child's life. I can't just do nothing."

He left without looking back.

I watched him go, then picked up the coffee in front of me. It had gone cold. I drained it in one swallow, and the bitterness spread through my entire mouth.

I took out my phone and called Henry's father, Edmund Lancaster. "Dad, I'm in the next city over. I thought I'd come see you."

I went straight to the Lancaster family's academic exchange center in the neighboring city. Edmund was in the middle of overseeing a research project when I arrived, and he didn't seem the least bit surprised to see me.

He cleared the office until it was just the two of us.

"Hazel, you look terrible." He studied me over the rim of his coffee cup with sharp, knowing eyes.

"You already knew, didn't you, Dad?" I got right to the point.

"Vera had a child. She's living in a Lancaster-owned apartment, spending Henry's money. You have eyes and ears all over the academic world and Henry's circles. There's no way you didn't know."

His hand paused on the coffee cup, and he let out a sigh. "Henry is foolish and too soft-hearted."

He set the cup down. "I'm aware of the boy. He may be born out of wedlock, but he still has Lancaster blood. The child is in poor health, and it's only natural for Henry to look after him."