Chapter 5 - TEN MINUTES HE HAD NOT EARNED
Daniel saw Amy before she could move.
For a second, the bookstore disappeared around her.
He saw only the woman standing near the back room in a cream sweater, dark jeans, and no wedding ring.
She looked thinner than she had at the gala.
More tired.
And somehow calmer.
That calm frightened him.
He opened the door.
The bell above it rang once.
Ruth stepped between them.
"We are closed."
Daniel looked at the sign.
It clearly said OPEN.
He did not argue.
"I need ten minutes with my wife."
Amy's expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Not wife.
Not anymore, something in her face said.
Ruth folded her arms.
"Does she want ten minutes with you?"
Daniel looked past her.
"Amy."
The sound of her name in his voice made something painful move through her chest.
She hated that too.
"Ruth, it is okay."
Ruth turned.
"You sure?"
Amy nodded.
"Ten minutes."
Daniel exhaled for what felt like the first time since Manhattan.
Ruth pointed toward a narrow reading alcove near the back windows.
"In there."
Simon remained by the door.
Ruth looked at him.
"He can wait outside."
Simon immediately stepped back onto the sidewalk.
Daniel followed Amy into the alcove.
Two worn armchairs faced each other beside a shelf of maritime history books.
Amy sat.
Daniel did not.
His eyes moved over her face, then her shoulders, then down before he stopped himself.
He had noticed the cream sweater was loose.
Now he wondered what it was hiding.
Amy saw the thought.
"Do not."
Daniel looked back at her face.
"Are you pregnant?"
She stared at him.
"That is your first question?"
"It is the question I have not been able to breathe around for three days."
Amy's laugh was quiet and bitter.
"Interesting."
"Amy."
"You had no trouble breathing in Chicago."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"You saw the photo."
"The entire country saw the photo."
"I was going to tell you."
"When?"
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Amy nodded.
"That is what I thought."
"It was one night."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Do not insult me by starting with mathematics."
Daniel flinched.
"I am not."
"One night."
Amy repeated the words slowly.
"As though betrayal becomes smaller if you can fit it into one calendar square."
"I am trying to tell you the truth."
"You are telling me the part the photograph already proved."
Daniel sat opposite her.
"We kissed in the bar."
Amy said nothing.
"We went upstairs."
Her fingers tightened around the edge of the chair.
"And?"
Daniel looked at the floor.
"And I slept with her."
The words were quiet.
They were still violent.
Amy's face lost color.
For several seconds, there was no sound except rain against the windows.
Daniel looked up.
"I left before morning."
Amy stared at him.
"Do you want credit for that?"
"No."
"Good."
Her voice cracked on the word.
Daniel leaned forward.
"I ended it."
"Did you?"
"Yes."
"Then why was she in your arms at the gala?"
"She was not in my arms."
Amy's expression changed.
Daniel heard himself and immediately regretted it.
"That came out wrong."
"No."
Amy stood.
"It came out exactly the way you think."
"Sit down, please."
"You still believe the problem is technical."
"I know it is not."
"Do you?"
She pointed toward him.
"You slept with her, came home to me, watched me cook dinner, watched me ask whether you could keep Thursday morning open, and then you moved my appointment because Vanessa wanted journalists at breakfast."
Daniel's face changed.
"What appointment?"
Amy stopped.
She had not meant to say it.
The silence stretched.
Daniel's eyes lowered slowly toward her stomach.
Amy felt suddenly exposed.
"Amy."
She turned away.
"No."
"Please."
"Do not make me say it because you cornered me in a bookstore."
Daniel stood too.
"I did not know."
"That is the point."
His voice broke.
"Are you pregnant?"
Amy looked at him.
Then, with deliberate calm, she placed one hand over the small curve beneath her sweater.
Daniel stopped breathing.
The entire room seemed to tilt.
"Seventeen weeks and four days."
He stared at her hand.
"Seventeen."
"Yes."
He sat down abruptly.
His face went white.
Amy watched the calculation happen.
Chicago.
The canceled weekend.
The missed mornings.
Every week he had been absent while their child existed without him knowing.
Daniel pressed his palm to his mouth.
"Oh, God."
Amy's eyes filled.
She looked away before the tears could fall.
"I was going to tell you at the gala."
Daniel looked up.
"What?"
"The ultrasound was in my purse."
His face crumpled slightly.
"Amy."
"I had a note."
She laughed once, painfully.
"I wrote that maybe the baby would remind us what all the work was supposed to be for."
Daniel stood again.
"I am sorry."
Amy shook her head.
"Do not."
"I am."
"You do not get to make me hold your apology while I am still trying to hold myself together."
Daniel stopped.
She breathed slowly.
"I have been sick for months."
"Why did you not tell me?"
The instant he said it, he knew it was wrong.
Amy stared at him in disbelief.
"Why did I not tell you?"
"That is not what I meant."
"You were never home."
"You could have called."
Amy's face went still.
"I did."
Daniel remembered the voicemail.
Thursday morning.
It matters to me.
He looked down.
Amy continued.
"I called."
"I know."
"I asked you to stay home."
"I know."
"I stood in our bedroom three times with the ultrasound in my hand and watched you answer Vanessa's messages while I waited for a moment that never came."
Daniel covered his eyes briefly.
"I did not know."
"You keep saying that like ignorance happened to you."
He looked at her.
"You built it."
That sentence stayed between them.
Daniel's phone vibrated.
He ignored it.
Amy's phone vibrated too.
She glanced at the screen.
Elias.
"Your ten minutes are over."
Daniel stood quickly.
"No."
Amy's eyes hardened.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, please."
He forced himself to slow down.
"I came across the country."
"That was your choice."
"I need to know you are safe."
"You can see me."
"I need to know about the baby."
"The baby is healthy."
"Boy or girl?"
Amy hesitated.
Daniel saw it.
"You know."
"Yes."
"Please tell me."
Amy looked at him for a long time.
"No."
The refusal stunned him.
"Why?"
"Because I need one thing that does not become yours the second you notice it."
Daniel looked as though she had struck him.
Amy hated the guilt that followed.
She reminded herself that boundaries often felt cruel to people who had benefited from having none.
"You will receive information through Elias."
"I am the father."
"Biologically, yes."
"That is not nothing."
"I did not say it was."
"Then let me be there."
"For what?"
"Appointments."
Amy almost laughed.
"Now you can make appointments?"
Daniel absorbed the blow.
"I deserve that."
"This is not about what you deserve."
She looked down at her stomach.
"It is about what I can survive right now."
Daniel's eyes filled for the first time.
"Are you divorcing me?"
Amy looked back at him.
"Yes."
He inhaled sharply.
Even after the ring, even after the empty apartment, some irrational part of him had not believed the word would come.
"Do not decide that here."
"I decided it before I left Manhattan."
"Because of Vanessa?"
Amy's expression changed.
"No."
Daniel stared at her.
"She was the last thing."
Amy's voice softened.
"Not the first."
That hurt more.
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing today."
"That cannot be the answer."
"It is."
Ruth appeared at the edge of the alcove.
"Time."
Daniel looked at Amy.
"Can I see you tomorrow?"
"No."
"The day after?"
"No."
"Can I stay in town?"
Amy's eyes flashed.
"I cannot stop you."
"I am not asking legally."
"Then hear me emotionally."
She stepped closer.
"Go home."
Daniel's shoulders dropped.
"Amy."
"Go fix the story your foundation released about me."
His face tightened.
"I did not approve that statement."
"But it was published under your name."
"I am issuing a correction."
"Then do it."
"I will."
"And stop your investigator from following me."
Daniel looked toward the front door.
"I will."
"And do not use the baby to make me stay married to you."
He looked back at her.
"I would never."
Amy's voice became quiet.
"You already used my loyalty to make me stay longer than I should have."
Daniel had no defense.
He walked toward the door.
Before stepping outside, he turned.
Amy was still standing beside the maritime shelf.
His eyes dropped once more to the hand resting over her stomach.
"I am sorry I missed seventeen weeks."
Amy swallowed.
"You missed more than that."
Daniel left.
Ruth locked the door behind him.
Amy stood motionless until the black SUV disappeared around the corner.
Then her knees weakened.
Ruth reached her before she fell.
Amy covered her face.
The sob that came out was small and furious.
"I hate that I still love him."
Ruth held her without speaking.
Outside, Daniel sat in the back of the SUV with his forehead against the cold window.
Simon waited silently.
After nearly a minute, Daniel's phone rang.
Owen.
Daniel answered.
"What?"
Owen's voice was tight.
"We have a bigger problem than the photograph."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"What now?"
"Internal audit found payments from the foundation to Cole Strategic Media."
Daniel sat upright.
"Vanessa's brother."
"Yes."
"How much?"
Owen hesitated.
"Just over two point four million dollars in eighteen months."
Daniel stared at the back of Simon's seat.
"For what?"
"That is the problem."
"Owen."
"Nobody can prove what the company actually did."
Daniel's blood turned cold.
Owen continued.
May you like
"And every payment was approved through your executive authorization code."
