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Chapter 7— THE PROOF
Last Updated:
2025-12-16 14:45:20
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WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter 8— THE NEGOTIATION
LIAM'S POV The photo on my phone isn’t just an image; it’s a living crime. Maya’s confused profile, Leo’s drowsy head against her arm, the blur of highway asphalt. The text below it is a calculated strike: Let’s negotiate.My fingers don’t shake. They turn to stone. I hit ‘call’ on the number.It rings twice. A voice answers, breathless, strained. “Liam.”It’s Daniel. Of course it is.“Where are they?” My voice is low, a growl in the empty hospital corridor.“Somewhere safe. A specialized facility. They’ll get the rest Leo needs, away from… all this drama.” He’s reciting a script. I hear the lie in the over-explanation.“You kidnapped your wife and son. Cut the corporate speak, Daniel. What do you want?”A pause. I hear him swallow. “Elise called me. She told me you have a document. You will bring it to me. The original. You will sign a statement denying any knowledge of her child. And then you will get on a plane and go back to wherever you came from. In return, I will give you the
WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter 7— THE PROOF
LIAM'S POVThe date. The damn date.I sit in my car in the hospital parking garage, the envelope crumpled on the passenger seat. I’ve run the math twelve times. The bachelor party. The night Daniel vanished for four hours. The night Elise called me, her voice slurred and weeping, asking if I’d seen him, mumbling about promises he’d broken.Aiden Martinez was born exactly nine months later.My brother’s child. Another one.The rage is a clean, cold blade. It cuts through the shock, through the hurt of Maya sending me away. This isn’t about me anymore. This is about the sheer scale of Daniel’s lies. Maya thinks she’s surviving one betrayal. She doesn’t know she’s living in an earthquake zone.I start the engine. I don’t need sentiment. I need evidence. I need to look Elise in the eye.Her apartment is in a complex that’s seen better days. I park across the street, my photographer’s eye scanning. I’m not here for a family reunion. I’m here for reconnaissance. An hour passes. Then I see i
WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter Six— THE ACCUSED
LIAM'S POVThe envelope on the chair is a landmine. The words printed on it—Paternity Test Order—don’t just threaten my future; they obliterate the fragile present. Maya is staring at me, her eyes a storm of betrayal and confusion. Clara’s poison has already seeped in: Different versions of the same betrayal.My mouth is dry as dust. “Maya,” I rasp, but no other words come. How do you explain a lie you didn’t tell, a past that’s suddenly a weapon aimed at the only person you care about?The truth is a floodgate, and behind it is everything I’ve spent a decade suppressing.I loved her first.We were sixteen, in Mr. Bailey’s literature class. Maya wasn’t the flashy kind of beautiful. She had a quiet light, a way of listening that made you feel like the only person in the room. I’d craft terrible poems in my notebook, my eyes tracing the line of her concentration. I was working up the courage to say something, anything, by the end of the semester.Then Daniel came home from his first yea
WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter 5— THE CLAIM
MAYA'S POV“You look terrible, Maya. Are they not letting you use the shower?”The voice, smooth and invasive as syrup, slides into the room. I look up from wiping Leo’s brow. Clara stands in the doorway, holding a ludicrously oversized bouquet of white lilies. She’s dressed for a board meeting, not a pediatric ICU.Liam, who’d been dozing in the corner chair, is instantly on his feet, a silent, solid wall between her and the bed.“What are you doing here?” My voice is flat. All my emotion is reserved for the beep of the monitor.“I came to see the child, of course. And to see you.” She places the flowers on the windowsill, an act of conquest. “We need to talk. Man to man, as it were.”“There’s nothing to talk about.”“Oh, I disagree.” She smiles, glancing around the room with a pitying look. “I think we need to understand each other. For Daniel’s sake. He’s… stretched very thin.”A cold laugh escapes me. “Is that what we’re calling it?”She ignores me, stepping closer. Liam shifts, b
WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter 4— THE DEAL
DANIEL'S POV The hospital corridor is too bright, buzzing with a sound that lives inside my skull. The click of the door behind me is the sound of a cell locking. Maya’s words echo. Get out.She knows. Not everything, but enough. She saw Lily’s picture. She did the math. The math I’ve been running for five years, a frantic calculation that never added up to anything but this moment, right here, in the smell of antiseptic and failure.I lean against the cool wall, closing my eyes. Not against the headache, but against the memory. It always starts with the rain.Six years ago. The rain was biblical. My start-up, the one I’d poured my soul and Maya’s savings into, had just collapsed. The servers were sold, the office empty. I sat in my car outside our apartment, unable to go in and tell her we’d lost everything. Her faith in me was this shining, fragile thing, and I had to shatter it.My phone rang. An unknown number.“Daniel Thorne?” A woman’s voice, smooth as good whiskey. Unforgettab
WHICH MAN STAYS? Chapter 3— THE GHOST IN THE PHOTO
MAYA'S POV The silence after deleting Daniel’s voicemail is a clean slate. A terrible, empty one. I walk back to Leo’s room wearing Liam’s jacket like armor.He’s right where I left him, a steadfast silhouette in the terrible chair. He looks up. “You okay?”“Define okay,” I say, but my voice is lighter. Having one person who simply shows up rewires your nervous system.Dr. Vance, our main doctor, comes in smiling. “It’s time. We’ll start bringing him back to us.” The process is slow, a careful dial-turn of consciousness. Leo’s tiny fingers twitch. My world narrows to the space between his eyelashes.Daniel arrives halfway through. He walks in with the hesitant air of a tourist. He’s clean, shaved, wearing a crisp shirt. He looks at Liam, and his polite mask slips for a second into pure, unguarded annoyance.“Liam. I didn’t know you were in town.”“I am now,” Liam says, not looking away from Leo. His voice is neutral, but his posture—leaning forward, elbows on knees, a fortress around
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