Chapter 6: The Man in the Room
By the time we reached the hospital corridor, I could hear Daniel's voice through the half-open door.
"I just want to speak with my wife.
Alone.
Is that so unreasonable?"
Rosa's voice came back, completely level: "She'll be back shortly.
I'm happy to wait with you."
"I didn't ask you to wait.
I asked you to leave."
"I know."
I stopped outside the door.
Luka put a hand briefly on my arm — not restraining, just present — and then stepped back against the wall where he wouldn't be seen immediately.
I walked in.
Daniel turned.
He was wearing the grey coat I had bought him two Christmases ago.
His hair was neat.
He looked like a man who had come to negotiate, not apologize.
"Elena." He spread his hands.
"I'm glad you're okay.
I was worried."
"Were you."
"Of course I was." He glanced at Rosa.
"Could we have a moment?"
"Rosa stays," I said.
His expression didn't change.
That was the tell — a man who was actually sorry would have flinched.
"Fine." He moved closer, lowering his voice.
"I know today was hard.
I handled it badly.
But we need to think about what's practical now.
For the baby.
For both of us."
"You didn't ask about her."
"What?"
"You walked in here and you haven't asked about your daughter once."
A pause.
Small, but there.
"How is she?" he said.
"Her name is Ada," I said.
"I decided this morning."
Something moved behind his eyes.
He hadn't expected me to have already named her.
He had expected to find me still in the position he'd left me in — stunned, dependent, waiting for him to tell me what came next.
"That's a lovely name," he said carefully.
"Elena, I need you to look at the papers I left.
The settlement is fair.
More than fair.
You'd have the apartment, full support payments, everything you need to —"
"Your father sent you."
The sentence landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
Daniel's mouth closed.
"He called you this morning," I continued.
"Before you walked out with her.
He told you to end it today, sign everything over, get out clean.
Because something was about to surface and he needed your name off the paperwork before it did."
"That's —" He stopped.
Started again.
"That's not what happened."
"Then tell me what did happen."
"Elena, you've just had a baby.
You're not thinking clearly —"
"You said that this morning too." I kept my voice even.
"It was the wrong thing to say then.
It's a worse thing to say now."
He changed tack.
The negotiating voice dropped away and something harder came up underneath it.
"Whatever someone has been telling you, you need to be careful.
There are people involved in things you don't understand.
If you start pulling at threads that don't concern you, you could make things very difficult for yourself.
And for Ada."
There it was.
"Is that a threat, Daniel?"
"It's a reality check."
"From you, or from your father?"
He didn't answer.
Rosa had not moved from her chair.
She was watching Daniel with an expression I recognized now — the particular stillness of someone who has already seen what this kind of man does and is no longer surprised by any of it.
"You should go," I said.
"Elena —"
"The papers won't be signed.
Not tonight.
Not until I've had them reviewed by my own attorney." I held his gaze.
"You can tell your father that."
Daniel stood very still for a moment.
Then he picked up his coat from the chair where he'd draped it.
"You're making this harder than it needs to be," he said.
"I know," I said.
"That's the point."
He left without looking at Ada.
Rosa waited until his footsteps faded down the corridor.
Then she reached over and rested her hand on top of mine.
"Your father would have been proud of that," she said quietly.
I looked at my daughter sleeping in the hospital bassinet.
My phone lit up on the bedside table.
A number I didn't recognize.
I answered.
A man's voice.
Older.
Smooth in the way that money makes a voice smooth.
"Elena.
May you like
My name is Richard Vance.
I think it's time we spoke directly."
