hallway.
‘Maren,’ he said.
The sound of her name in his voice opened an old door inside her. She closed it calmly.
Elowen hid halfway behind her skirt, peering out at him.
Nathan looked down at the child.
Up close, there was no room for denial. Elowen’s eyes were his. So was the shape of her brows when she frowned.
‘How old is she?’ he asked.
Maren lifted her chin. ‘Old enough to know when a stranger is staring.’
His mouth tightened. ‘Please.’
‘Please what?’
His gaze moved from Elowen to Maren’s face. ‘Is she mine?’
Maren inhaled once, slowly.
‘You are about to ask a question in a public hallway that you gave up the right to ask in private.’
He flinched.
‘You should have told me,’ he whispered.
There it was. The accusation dressed as grief.
Maren almost smiled.
‘The night you brought me divorce papers,’ she said, ‘I had the pregnancy test in my pocket.’
Nathan closed his eyes.
Behind him, Clara had come near enough to hear. Her gold gown shimmered beneath the hallway lights, but her face looked stripped bare.
‘You knew?’ Clara asked Nathan.
He turned quickly. ‘No.’
Clara stared at him. ‘You told me there was nothing left in your marriage.’
Nathan’s voice weakened. ‘There wasn’t.’
Maren looked down at Elowen, who had begun pressing the toe of one gold shoe against the patterned carpet.
‘There was everything left,’ Maren said. ‘He was facing the wrong direction.’
Clara’s eyes flashed. Not with sympathy. With fear.
‘Nathan,’ she said slowly, ‘tell me you did not know about the settlement clause.’
Maren’s attention sharpened.
Nathan’s expression changed so slightly that another person might have missed it. Maren did not.
‘What settlement clause?’ she asked.
Clara looked from Nathan to Maren. For the first time all night, she seemed less like a rival and more like a woman realizing she had been standing on a floor that was not solid.
Nathan said, ‘This is not the place.’
‘It became the place when you followed me into a hallway,’ Maren replied.
Clara folded her arms. ‘When Nathan and I became involved, he told me the divorce had to be finalized quickly because of a family trust. He said if you had a child before the decree was final, any child legally tied to him could affect voting shares in Vale Harbor.’
Maren felt the room narrow.
Vale Harbor was Nathan’s family development company. She knew enough about it to know there were trusts, board seats, and old money rules written by men who feared losing control even after death.
She looked at Nathan.
‘You knew there was a clause involving children?’
‘I knew there were provisions,’ he said.
‘Did you know I was pregnant?’
‘No.’
The answer came quickly. Too quickly.
Maren studied him. ‘But you knew that if I became pregnant before the divorce was final, your clean exit would become complicated.’
Nathan’s silence confirmed what his mouth did not.
Clara let out a small, humorless laugh.
‘You told me she was obsessed. You told me she would use a baby to keep you if she ever had the chance.’
Maren’s stomach turned.
Nathan reached toward Clara. ‘I was trying to protect us.’
‘No,’ Clara said, stepping back. ‘You were protecting money.’
The words landed hard.
