Chapter 5 - Rosa’s Second Secret
Ethan waited until the next morning.
Lily had been released from the hospital with instructions for observation and rest.
Rosa stayed inside the small employee apartment at the edge of the estate.
Ethan knocked.
Rosa opened the door wearing sweatpants and an old university sweatshirt.
The word COLUMBIA stretched across the front.
He stared at it.
Rosa noticed.
“What?”
“Why did you leave?”
Her face changed.
“Victoria told you.”
“She told me to ask.”
Rosa stepped aside.
“Lily’s asleep.”
They sat at the small kitchen table.
Ethan had probably purchased tables worth more than the entire apartment.
Yet sitting there made him remember the cheap restaurants where he and Rosa used to spend hours talking.
“I left because I couldn’t afford childcare and tuition.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“I tried.”
Ethan lowered his eyes.
Rosa continued.
“My mother was sick.”
“I worked nights.”
“I started missing lab sessions.”
“Then Professor Daniels called me into his office.”
Ethan remembered the name.
Rosa had admired that professor.
“He offered me a temporary leave.”
“And?”
“I never returned.”
“Why?”
Rosa looked toward Lily’s bedroom.
“Because temporary problems sometimes become permanent lives.”
Ethan sat quietly.
Then Rosa added,
“There’s something else.”
He waited.
“After Lily was born, someone contacted me.”
Ethan’s attention sharpened.
“Who?”
“A man named Charles Weller.”
Ethan’s face went blank.
Rosa noticed immediately.
“You know him.”
“He worked for my father.”
“As what?”
“Private counsel.”
Rosa’s hands tightened around her coffee cup.
“He came to my apartment.”
“What did he want?”
“He said you knew about Lily.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Rosa continued.
“He said you wanted nothing to do with us.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I know that now.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Rosa’s voice weakened.
“He said you had received my letters.”
“He said you believed I was trying to trap you.”
Ethan stood so quickly his chair scraped backward.
“He said what?”
“He offered me money.”
The room became painfully quiet.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand dollars.”
Ethan laughed in disbelief.
“My father.”
“I never said it was your father.”
“You didn’t need to.”
He paced toward the window.
“My father used Weller whenever he wanted a problem buried without fingerprints.”
Rosa stared at him.
“I refused the money.”
Ethan turned.
“Of course you did.”
“You don’t know what I almost did.”
“What?”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“I almost took it.”
“Lily had pneumonia.”
“I had hospital bills.”
“I had forty-seven dollars in my checking account.”
Ethan’s anger disappeared.
Rosa wiped her cheek.
“But then Weller put a document in front of me.”
“What document?”
“A confidentiality agreement.”
“He wanted me to promise Lily would never contact you.”
Ethan looked physically ill.
“I threw him out.”
Rosa took a breath.
“Two weeks later, I lost my research position.”
Ethan stared.
“You think my father did that?”
“I never knew.”
Ethan slowly sat again.
His father had died eighteen months earlier.
There would be no confrontation.
No explanation.
No apology.
Only evidence.
“Do you still have anything Weller gave you?”
Rosa nodded.
“One thing.”
She walked into the bedroom.
When she returned, she carried an old envelope.
She placed it in front of Ethan.
Inside was the unsigned agreement.
At the bottom appeared the name of the law firm.
And beneath it was a handwritten note.
MAKE CERTAIN E.C. NEVER SEES THE GIRL.
May you like
Ethan recognized the handwriting immediately.
It belonged to his father.
