Chapter 2
The next morning, Emily refused to sit in my office.
She stood near the door with both hands folded over her belly.
Like she still expected someone to drag her out.
That hurt more than her anger.
I deserved her anger.
I did not deserve her fear.
“Please sit,” I said.
She shook her head.
“I’m not staying long.”
“Emily.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“You don’t get to say my name like nothing happened.”
I took the blow because it was fair.
“I know.”
“You married her.”
“I thought you left me.”
“I thought you threw me away.”
Neither of us spoke after that.
The room was too full of things neither of us had survived yet.
My lawyer, Martin, placed a folder on the desk.
“Ms. Harper,” he said gently, “we have evidence that Victoria Cole impersonated both you and Mr. Cole. We believe she intercepted communications and manipulated employment records.”
Emily stared at the folder.
“She did more than manipulate records.”
Her voice dropped.
“She made sure every hotel in the city rejected me.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Emily swallowed.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I tried to get stable work. I applied everywhere. Every place said they’d heard I had theft complaints. Drug complaints. Guests saying I screamed at them.”
Her fingers tightened around her stomach.
“I have never stolen anything in my life.”
Martin wrote quickly.
I felt sick.
“She blacklisted you.”
Emily laughed once.
“No. She buried me.”
The door opened.
My assistant, Nora, stepped inside, pale.
“Mr. Cole, Mrs. Cole is downstairs.”
“I told security she was not permitted up.”
Nora hesitated.
“She brought your mother.”
That name landed hard.
My mother, Eleanor Cole, had never liked Emily.
She called her pretty in the tone people used for cheap things.
She had adored Victoria.
Of course she had.
I walked to the security monitor.
Victoria stood in the lobby wearing cream silk and diamonds.
My mother stood beside her with a face carved from anger.
Emily stepped closer and saw them.
Her face changed.
“She knew too,” Emily whispered.
I turned.
“My mother?”
Emily looked at me with wet eyes.
“The day I got the letter, your mother came to my apartment.”
My blood went cold.
“She told me if I tried to contact you, she would claim I was stalking you. She said no one would believe a waitress over the Cole family.”
I gripped the edge of the desk.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How?” she snapped.
“You were gone. Your phone blocked me. Your emails bounced. Your doorman said I was banned from your building.”
Her voice broke.
“And then I saw photos of you and Victoria kissing in Italy.”
“I was never in Italy with her.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“She showed me plane records.”
Martin looked up.
“Those can be fabricated.”
Emily opened her eyes.
“I know that now.”
Downstairs, Victoria looked directly into the camera.
Then she smiled.
My phone rang.
Victoria.
I answered without speaking.
“Alexander,” she said.
“Don’t do this in public.”
“You made it public when you put Emily in my lobby.”
“She is lying.”
“She is carrying my child.”
A pause.
Then her mask slipped.
“You don’t know that.”
Emily heard it.
I watched her flinch.
Something inside me snapped clean.
“Martin,” I said, still holding the phone.
“Get a court order for a prenatal paternity test if Emily agrees. Get restraining orders ready. And call the board.”
Victoria’s breathing sharpened.
“The board?”
“You used company employees, company property, and company systems to hurt a pregnant woman.”
“She was going to ruin everything!”
The lobby camera showed my mother grabbing Victoria’s arm.
Too late.
Victoria had already said enough.
Martin’s pen stopped.
Emily stared at the phone like it had become a weapon.
I said quietly, “Thank you for confirming motive.”
Then I hung up.
Emily sat down at last.
Not because she trusted me.
Because her knees had begun to shake.
I moved toward her.
She lifted one hand.
“Don’t.”
I stopped.
She looked up at me.
“If this baby is yours, Alexander, I will not let your family take her from me.”
“Her?”
Emily’s face softened for one fragile second.
“A girl.”
The room went silent.
My daughter.
A daughter I had not protected.
I lowered myself into the chair across from her.
“No one is taking her,” I said.
“Not from you.”
Emily’s eyes hardened.
“Words are easy.”
May you like
I nodded.
“Then watch what I do.”
