Chapter four

CHAPTER FOUR

Mara's Pov 

I chose a coffee shop twelve minutes from my office. Public, neutral, busy enough that neither of us would make a scene. I got there first, took a table near the window, and ordered black coffee because I needed the clarity more than the comfort.

Elias arrived at nine exactly. He spotted me before I waved, which meant he'd been looking. He ordered at the counter and came to the table and sat down, and for a moment neither of us said anything.

"Marcus called a lawyer," I said. No preamble.

"I know."

"Who?"

"A family attorney named Bryce Callahan. He does custody and visitation work." He wrapped both hands around his cup. "I found out last night after I messaged you. He didn't tell me he was doing it. He told me after."

"Does Marcus understand what he's doing?"

"Marcus understands exactly what he's doing. That's the problem." He looked at me steadily. "He's not doing it to hurt you. I want you to know that. He genuinely believes Lily should know the Voss family, and when Marcus believes something he moves on it. It's how he's always been."

"I don't care about his intentions. I care about what a lawyer filing on his behalf means for my daughter."

The word my landed between us. He didn't flinch at it, which I noted.

"It doesn't have to become a legal fight," he said.

"You're right. It doesn't. But that depends on Marcus, not on me." I leaned forward slightly. "Elias, I need you to be straight with me. Are you here asking for a visit for your mother, or are you here as the first step in something larger that your family has already decided?"

He met my eyes. "I came for my mother. That's true."

"And Marcus?"

"Marcus is his own person making his own decisions. I can't speak for him."

"Can you stop him?"

A pause. Honest, which I appreciated and hated at the same time. "I can try. I have more influence over him than anyone. But I can't promise you he'll stand down just because I ask him to."

I sat back. My coffee was getting cold and I didn't care.

"I spoke to someone last night," I said. "About my legal standing."

"Okay."

"The arrangement we made three years ago isn't formal. You know that. A witnessed letter is not an adoption decree." I watched his face. "I need you to sign formal adoption papers. Voluntarily. Before any of this goes further."

He was quiet for a long moment.

"If I sign adoption papers," he said slowly, "I lose any future right to—"

"You already gave up your rights. Three years ago, in a hospital hallway. The papers would just make it real." I kept my voice level. "I'm not trying to punish you. I'm trying to protect Lily from a legal battle that would uproot her entire life. If you sign, Marcus has no case. If you don't—" I stopped. "I need to know which version of this we're in."

He looked out the window. The street outside was doing its ordinary morning things. People with coffee cups and laptops and uncomplicated Tuesdays.

"I'll sign," he said.

I exhaled slowly. "Just like that?"

"You said I already gave up my rights. You're correct. I did." He turned back to face me. "I made a decision in that hallway and I have lived with it for three years. I'm not going to pretend now that it was anything other than what it was." Something moved through his expression, controlled but visible. "But I need you to understand that signing those papers is not nothing for me. Even if it should have happened already."

"I know it's not nothing," I said quietly. "I'm not asking you to feel nothing about it."

"I know you're not." He picked up his cup, set it down again without drinking. "What happens with Marcus?"

"That depends on you. If you handle him, we handle this quietly. If you can't or won't, I have to prepare for a fight I don't want and Lily doesn't need."

"I'll talk to him today."

"Talk to him, Elias. Not around him. Tell him directly that you're signing the papers and that if he pursues this he does it without your support." I held his gaze. "Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"Will you?"

"Yes." Firm. No hesitation that time.

I nodded. We sat for a moment in the particular quiet of two people who have just negotiated something that matters.

"The visit with your mother," I said. "I'm still willing. But I want to meet her first, without Lily. I need to see who she is before I bring my daughter into a room with her."

"That's fair."

"This weekend, if she's well enough. Somewhere comfortable for her, I'll come to her."

"She'll want that." Something shifted in his face. Gratitude, or something close to it. "Mara, I know I have no right to say this, but thank you. For how you've handled all of this. For Lily. For—" He stopped himself.

"Don't," I said. Not unkindly. "Don't thank me yet. Let's get through the weekend first."

He nodded. He reached into his jacket pocket and put a business card on the table. "My direct number. Not the one that goes to my assistant."

I picked it up and looked at it. *Elias Voss. CEO, Voss Capital Group.* I turned it over. He'd written a number on the back by hand.

I put it in my bag.

We both stood. He pulled on his jacket. And then at the door, he paused the way he had the night before, like he had a habit of saving the important things for exits.

"Marcus knows where you live," he said. "I didn't tell him. He found it on his own." He looked at me. "I just thought you should know that before the weekend.”