Chapter 6 - The Uncle Who Came Back to New York.
Vincent Cross had never liked surprises unless he caused them.
That was the first thing Gabriel told me after seeing the diner photograph.
The second was worse.
“He knew you were pregnant.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
Gabriel was already scrolling through old messages on his phone.
“Not that it was you.”
“Explain.”
“After my father died, Vincent took temporary control of several family trusts.”
“Yes.”
“One of them funded a medical concierge service used by the family.”
My stomach tightened.
“My doctor was not your family doctor.”
“No.”
“But the building where Dr. Cole practiced was partly owned by a Cross trust at the time.”
I felt sick.
“You are telling me your family had access to the building records?”
“Not medical records.”
“Appointments?”
“Possibly billing information.”
“Possibly?”
Gabriel looked up.
“I am trying not to tell you more than I know.”
That was new too.
I hated that growth in him was arriving exactly when I needed reasons to stay angry.
“Did Vincent ever mention me after the divorce?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He said I had finally made a rational decision.”
I laughed without humor.
“Of course he did.”
“He wanted me to cut off the settlement.”
“What settlement?”
“You refused most of it.”
“That was my choice.”
“He still thought you received too much.”
“I took the townhouse and enough cash to start over.”
“You were entitled to far more.”
“I did not want far more.”
“I know.”
“Did he?”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“Yes.”
The sun had begun rising over Manhattan when Marcus returned.
He carried coffee for everyone and three paper bags of breakfast for the boys.
I liked him more for remembering them than for bringing coffee.
“They left the diner separately,” he said.
“Vincent went to a townhouse on East Seventy-Fourth.”
“Vivian returned to the Carlyle.”
“Sloan took a cab to Penn Station.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Did he board a train?”
“No.”
“He entered through the main hall and exited ten minutes later through a side entrance.”
“Then where?”
“We lost him.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Marcus added quickly.
“We have people checking cameras.”
I sipped the coffee.
“What do we do now?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“We?”
“Yes, we.”
I hated how naturally the word came out.
“If someone is using forged documents with my name and photographs of my children, I am not sitting in a hotel while men decide what I should know.”
A faint expression crossed Marcus’s face.
He probably remembered why Gabriel married me.
Gabriel did.
“I was going to suggest the same thing.”
“Good.”
“We wait for the paternity results.”
“I know the results.”
“The rest of the world does not.”
“And?”
“Then we control the first public statement.”
I set down my coffee.
“No.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“No statement?”
“No statement without my approval.”
He nodded.
“Agreed.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“What?” Gabriel asked him.
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
“You are agreeing more often than you used to.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“I have stronger opposition.”
I should not have smiled.
I did.
The boys woke before seven.
Their energy was offensive to every exhausted adult in the suite.
Owen launched his paper airplane before both feet were fully out of bed.
Noah wanted pancakes.
Eli wanted to know whether the paternity test could be wrong.
Gabriel answered him carefully.
“It can be very accurate.”
“How accurate?”
“Very.”
“That’s not a number.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Your son is difficult.”
“Our son, maybe,” I corrected.
He caught the word.
So did I.
Neither of us mentioned it.
Breakfast arrived.
The boys sat around the dining table with Gabriel across from them.
He looked more nervous than he had facing federal investigators on television years earlier.
Noah poured syrup onto his pancakes.
“Do you have kids?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Maybe three.”
Owen laughed.
Eli did not.
“I mean other kids.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Gabriel glanced at me.
“Life did not work out that way.”
“Are you married?” Noah asked.
I nearly inhaled coffee.
Gabriel remained calm.
“No.”
“You live with the sparkly lady?”
Owen had named Serena.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to marry her?”
The room went very quiet.
Gabriel looked at me.
I shook my head slightly.
Do not answer for my benefit.
He seemed to understand.
“I don’t know,” he told Owen.
That answer probably would have shattered Serena if she were there.
It unsettled me too.
Five years ago, I had imagined that Gabriel and Serena would marry within months.
They never had.
I had never allowed myself to wonder why.
Noah cut his pancake with the edge of his fork.
“If you are our dad, can we meet your mom?”
Gabriel’s expression softened.
“She died before you were born.”
“Oh.”
“She would have liked you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she liked people who asked too many questions.”
Eli looked pleased.
“What about your dad?”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“He died too.”
“Would he have liked us?”
Gabriel paused.
“I think he would have wanted to own every decision you made.”
Noah frowned.
“That doesn’t sound like liking.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t.”
I watched Gabriel choose honesty without poisoning the boys against a dead grandfather they would never meet.
It was another small thing I did not want to notice.
At nine, my sister Leah called.
I had not contacted her.
She had seen the gala photograph online.
Her first words were not hello.
“You told him?”
“I did not plan to.”
“But you told him.”
“Yes.”
“Are the boys okay?”
“For now.”
She heard something in my voice.
“What happened?”
I moved into the hall.
“Someone leaked fake medical records saying I knew about the pregnancy before the divorce.”
Leah went silent.
“Claire.”
“What?”
“There is something I should have told you years ago.”
My stomach sank.
“What?”
“Gabriel came to see me after the divorce.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“He told me.”
Leah exhaled.
“I told him to leave you alone.”
“I know that too.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“I know.”
“But that isn’t the part I mean.”
I leaned against the wall.
“What part?”
“Before he came, a woman contacted me.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
“What woman?”
“She said she worked for Gabriel’s legal team.”
“What did she want?”
“She told me Gabriel suspected you had taken money from the Cross family.”
My breath stopped.
“When?”
“About a month after you found out you were pregnant.”
“Did she say what money?”
“No.”
“She asked whether you had opened any new bank accounts.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“You were sick, scared, and barely functioning.”
“I thought it was Gabriel trying to pull you back into his world.”
“Did you get her name?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me.”
Leah hesitated.
“Marianne Sloan.”
“Sloan?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know her?”
“No.”
I knew someone who might.
I ended the call and returned to the sitting room.
Gabriel looked up immediately.
“What happened?”
“Does Peter Sloan have a wife?”
Marcus answered.
“Had.”
“What was her name?”
He checked his phone.
“Marianne.”
My stomach dropped.
“She contacted my sister five years ago pretending to work for your legal team.”
Gabriel stood.
“When?”
“A month after I learned I was pregnant.”
Marcus started typing.
I continued.
“She asked whether I had opened new bank accounts because Gabriel supposedly believed I had taken money from the Cross family.”
Gabriel’s face went cold.
“I never sent anyone.”
“I believe you.”
The words surprised both of us.
Marcus looked up from his phone.
“Marianne Sloan died eighteen months ago.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
“Stroke.”
“Any children?”
“One daughter.”
“Name?”
Marcus’s expression changed.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
Marcus turned the screen toward us.
The daughter’s name was Katherine Sloan Vale.
I read it twice.
Vale.
Serena’s mother was Vivian Vale.
Gabriel went completely still.
Marcus spoke quietly.
“Katherine was Vivian’s younger sister.”
Peter Sloan was not merely connected to Serena’s family through business.
He had been married into it.
Which meant the people who had helped convince Gabriel I was unfaithful, the people connected to the fake bank account, and the people watching my children were not separate threads.
They were one family.
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THE THREE BOYS GABRIEL CROSS NEVER KNEW
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