CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
Eric Voss came to my house the next morning.
Not because I invited him.
Because Claire called him after I went upstairs to sleep in Oliver’s room.
I watched him step out of a silver car with a leather jacket, expensive sunglasses, and the confidence of a man who had never had to tuck a sick child into bed at 3:00 a.m.
He looked at my house like he was measuring what he might be owed.
Claire opened the door before I could.
“Eric, you shouldn’t be here.”
He stepped inside anyway.
“I have a right to know what’s happening.”
I came down the stairs.
“No, you have a curiosity. Those are different.”
Eric looked at me.
He was handsome in a shallow way.
The kind of man who probably photographed well and apologized badly.
“I’m not trying to make this ugly,” he said.
I almost smiled.
“You slept with my wife, knew there was a chance her child was yours, stayed silent for five years, and now you walked into my living room. Ugly arrived before you did.”
Claire whispered, “Daniel, please.”
Eric glanced toward the stairs.
“Where is he?”
My body went cold.
“Don’t ask that.”
“If he’s my son—”
“He is not a trophy you get to claim because a test made you feel important.”
Eric’s face tightened.
“You can’t erase biology.”
“No,” I said. “But biology didn’t teach him to say please. Biology didn’t hold him through ear infections. Biology didn’t sit on a bathroom floor while he threw up from a stomach virus. Biology didn’t build the train set he sleeps beside every night.”
Eric stepped closer.
“I want to see him.”
I moved between him and the stairs.
“Not today.”
His voice sharpened.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Behind him, Claire finally spoke.
“Yes, he does.”
Eric turned.
Claire was pale, but her voice was clear.
“You don’t get to walk in now and scare him.”
He stared at her.
“You said if Daniel found out—”
“I said a lot of things because I was scared,” Claire said. “I’m done making my fear his childhood.”
For the first time, Eric looked uncertain.
Then Oliver appeared at the top of the stairs holding his toy car.
“Daddy?”
All three adults froze.
Oliver looked from me to Eric.
“Who’s that?”
Eric’s eyes softened with something that looked almost real.
I turned before he could speak.
“Someone leaving.”
Eric laughed under his breath.
“You think this is over?”
I looked at Claire.
May you like
Then back at him.
“No. I think now it finally starts honestly.”
