Chapter 12 - WHAT EACH OF THEM WAS REALLY PROTECTING
Chloe forced the four of them into one room.
Daniel.
Linda.
Raymond.
Chloe.
No lawyers.
No trust papers.
No wedding planners.
She chose Bayfront’s empty pavilion on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
“You’re going to answer me,” she said. “And nobody gets to explain what somebody else meant.”
She started with Raymond.
“Why did you sign away your rights?”
He looked at the floor.
“I was scared.”
“Of Dad?”
“No.”
That surprised everyone.
“Of being a father. Of being broke. Of my career disappearing before it started.”
“And the money?”
“I took it.”
“Why?”
“Because I told myself you’d have a better life with Daniel.”
Chloe’s mouth tightened.
“And because twenty-five thousand dollars mattered.”
Raymond nodded.
“Yes.”
Next Linda.
“Why did you pay him?”
Linda’s eyes filled.
“Because I wanted the uncertainty gone.”
“Why didn’t you tell Dad?”
“I thought he might leave.”
Daniel looked at her.
After thirty years, even that was new.
Chloe asked:
“Why did you lie to me?”
“Because every year made the previous year harder to explain.”
Then Daniel.
“Why didn’t you tell me at eighteen?”
He answered:
“Because I was afraid biology would beat me.”
Chloe stared.
“You really thought twenty-nine years could lose to DNA?”
Daniel looked at Raymond.
“At the time? Yes.”
Finally she asked about the wedding.
Linda admitted she wanted Raymond at the front because she was angry at Daniel and intoxicated by the life Raymond represented.
Raymond admitted being publicly recognized as Chloe’s father mattered to him more than he had allowed himself to say.
Daniel admitted that when Chloe chose Raymond, part of him wanted to cancel Bayfront immediately.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the trust wasn’t built to reward you for loving me correctly.”
Chloe looked down.
That was the first sentence that softened her.
Then she revealed what she had been protecting.
“I wanted Raymond to walk me because I wanted the last eight months to mean something.”
Nobody interrupted.
“If he was my real father, then maybe finding him wasn’t just finding out everyone lied to me.”
Her voice cracked.
“Maybe I got something back.”
Daniel understood.
Chloe had not replaced him because Raymond was richer.
She had been trying to turn betrayal into a reunion.
May you like
That did not excuse what she did.
It finally made it comprehensible.
