Chapter 5: The Version She Prepared
No one spoke for a moment.
Then Gabriel said, very quietly, "Close the door, Serena."
She did.
She even sat down — across from both of us, as though this were a meeting she had scheduled.
"I'm not going to pretend," she said.
"There's no point now."
"No," Gabriel agreed.
"There isn't."
She looked at me first.
Something in her expression that wasn't quite an apology and wasn't quite contempt.
Something in between that I didn't have a name for.
"I knew about the pregnancy eight weeks after you left," she said.
"I had Harlan watching you.
He sent me the clinic report."
"You had someone steal my medical records," I said.
"I had someone obtain information.
Yes."
Gabriel's hands were flat on the table again.
"Keep going."
"I knew if you found out about the boys, everything I had built with you would be gone." She said it plainly, without drama.
"So I made a decision."
"You made a decision," Gabriel repeated.
"I kept watching her.
I made sure she wasn't going to come back.
And when it became clear she wasn't going to tell you—" Serena paused.
"I let it stay that way."
"The photograph," I said.
"The divorce lawyer.
The wire transfers."
Her eyes moved to me.
"The photograph was insurance.
In case you ever changed your mind about staying quiet.
In case you decided to come back and tell him." She folded her hands on the table.
"I needed something that would make Gabriel question your loyalty before you could establish yours."
The clarity of it was almost breathtaking.
She had built a trap before I had even considered walking back into the room.
"And the lawyer?" Gabriel said.
"Your divorce attorney had a problem I became aware of.
A financial problem.
I helped him with it.
In exchange, he made sure the settlement terms were structured in a way that discouraged Claire from pursuing any future claim." She glanced at me.
"I didn't think you'd come back.
You seemed determined to disappear."
"I was protecting my children," I said.
"I know." Something crossed her face.
"I was protecting mine."
"You don't have children, Serena."
"I was protecting what I had with Gabriel." Her voice stayed level.
"I know how that sounds."
"It sounds like you stole five years from three boys who deserved a father," I said.
"And you stole five years from a man who deserved to know his sons existed.
And you did it while sitting next to him at galas and sleeping in his house and letting him believe he was living an honest life."
The room was very quiet.
Gabriel looked at her for a long time.
She met his gaze and didn't look away, which I supposed took a certain kind of nerve.
"Did you love me?" he asked.
"At any point.
Was any of it real?"
Serena's composure shifted.
Just slightly.
A tightening around her eyes.
"Yes," she said.
"That part was real."
"Then you knew exactly how much damage you were doing."
She didn't answer.
Gabriel stood.
"Dov."
Dov, who had been silent in the corner, straightened.
"I want everything documented.
The surveillance records, the transfers, the photograph, the connection to the law firm.
All of it." Gabriel looked at Serena.
"You're going to sit here and you're going to answer every question he asks you.
And you're going to do it because the alternative is that I make a phone call and this becomes a matter for people who are considerably less patient than I am."
Serena looked up at him.
For the first time since she had walked in, something behind her eyes flickered.
"And if I cooperate?"
"Then I decide what happens next." His voice was even.
"That's the only offer you're getting."
She looked at me.
I didn't give her anything.
"All right," she said finally.
Gabriel turned to me.
"I need an hour."
"The boys need to sleep."
"I'll have rooms prepared." He paused.
"Please.
Stay."
I thought about walking out.
I had done it before.
I knew how.
But Marcus was down the hall asking a staff member about strawberry seeds, and Noah was rebuilding his sugar cube tower, and Eli was asleep with a tablet on his chest, and these boys had asked me once already whether the man with the gray-green eyes was their father.
"One hour," I said.
I was almost at the door when Serena spoke again.
"Claire."
I stopped but didn't turn around.
"The Rome photograph," she said.
"There's a second one.
Harlan took two that night.
The second one—" A pause.
"Gabriel hasn't seen it yet.
But someone else has.
Someone who's been using it for the past two years."
I turned around then.
"Who?"
She looked at Gabriel, not me.
May you like
"His name is Vitelli," she said.
"And he's known about the boys since last spring."
