Chapter 5 : The Daughter He Doesn't Know

Claire:

I carried my two small bags into the entryway of Damon's house, stopping near the front hall while he set his keys down on the table near the mirror and turned to face me.

"The guest room is upstairs, the second door on the right," Damon said, pointing toward the staircase while keeping his distance from me. "I took the master bedroom at the end of the hall, so you can have the rest of the floor to yourself, and we won't have to run into each other unless we need to leave for family events."

"Thank you, that works fine for me," I replied, grabbing my bags to walk up the stairs, but his voice stopped me before I could take two steps.

"Why did you agree to this, Claire?" he asked, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes fixing on me with clear suspicion. "You look at me like you hate my guts, so why didn't you just tell your grandfather to reject my family's proposal?"

I held tight to the handles of my bags, keeping my face completely blank because I couldn't let him see how much his presence was tearing through me. "My family needed help, and your family offered a solution, so I did what I had to do to protect my mother's legacy, and that is the only thing you need to know."

"Right, just a standard business deal," he said, turning around and walking toward the kitchen without another word, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I went upstairs, unpacked my clothes into the dresser, and then sat down on the bed to call my trusted nanny, who was staying with Emma at a quiet rental apartment until I could figure out how to handle our new living situation.

The screen lit up, and Emma's face popped onto the phone screen, making a huge smile break across my face for the very first time all day.

"Mommy! I miss you so much!" Emma cheered into the phone, holding her little bear up so I could see it through the camera.

"I miss you too, sweetie," I said, keeping my voice low and quiet as I smiled back at her. "Did you eat your dinner like a big girl today?"

"Yes, I ate all my food, and then we played with the blocks," she said, leaning close to the screen while talking loudly. "When are you coming back home, Mommy?"

I didn't notice the bedroom door was slightly open until I heard a shadow move in the hallway, and when I looked up, I saw Damon standing in the door frame with his eyebrows pulled together as he listened to her small voice coming out of my speakers.

I immediately tapped the red button on the screen to cut the video call off, dropping the phone onto my lap while my heart hammered against my ribs.

"Who was that?" Damon asked, stepping into the room and staring down at my phone before looking back up at my face.

"It was just a private call," I said, putting the phone face down on the bed sheet.

"She called you Mommy," Damon said, his voice dropping low as he took another step into the room, his eyes scanning my face with intense focus. "Do you have a kid, Claire?"

"Yes, I have a daughter," I answered, keeping my hands steady in my lap so he couldn't see them shaking.

"How old is she?" he asked quickly, leaning against the edge of the table near the wall as he waited for my answer.

I hesitated for a long second, feeling the room grow completely quiet around us, before I finally forced the word out of my mouth. "Five."

Damon went completely silent, his eyes widening slightly as he stared at me without moving a single muscle in his face, his jaw working as if he were running numbers through his head.

"Five years old?" he repeated, his voice barely more than a whisper as he straightened his back. "When did you become a mother, Claire? What month was she born?"

"That is none of your business, Damon," I said, standing up from the bed and pointing toward the open bedroom door. "Our agreement was that we stay out of each other's personal lives, and my daughter has nothing to do with you or this arranged marriage, so please leave my room."

He stared at me for three more seconds, looking like he wanted to press the issue further, but then he turned around without saying another word and walked out into the hallway, shutting the door behind him.

Later that night, I lay awake in the dark room, pulling out a small printed photo from five years ago that I kept hidden inside my wallet, looking at Damon's smiling face from the day before his big championship game.

"Your daddy is right down the hall, Emma," I whispered to the empty room, clutching the photo to my chest as tears gathered in my eyes. "He doesn't even know you exist, and I don't know how I'm going to protect you if he ever figures out the truth."

Just as I set the photo back on the nightstand, my phone screen lit up on the mattress with a new text notification from the tablet I had left with Emma.

I picked up the phone, unlocked the screen, and opened the message, feeling every bit of warmth leave my body all at once as I read the words my daughter had typed out with her nanny's help.

Mommy, I saw Daddy on TV today. He looks like me.

My blood ran completely cold, because I had never once shown Emma a picture of Damon, and I had never told her what her father looked like.