Chapter 9: The Ex

Brooke called it a working lunch.

She held it in the glass dining room on the fourteenth floor, with six executives and a catering tray.

She had sent the invitation to my inbox herself, with a smiling emoji.

I should have known.

"Thank you all for joining us," she said, when everyone had a plate.

"A claim has been made about the child in our lobby, and the company has an interest in the facts."

Nelson sat at the head of the table with his jaw set.

I sat at the far end, across from an empty chair, with a sandwich I had no plan to eat.

"A gentleman has come forward," Brooke went on. "He drove up from Dayton this morning after seeing the news."

The door opened, and my ex-boyfriend walked in.

He was thirty, with gelled hair and a suit that did not fit, and he had put on weight since college.

He stopped when he saw me, and he gave me a small helpless wave.

"Hey, Francine," he said.

Six executives turned and looked at me at once.

"Mr. Holloway's assistant will recognize him," Brooke said. "He says he was in a relationship with her the year the child was conceived."

"He says he is the boy's father."

I put my sandwich down very carefully.

Under the table, my hands were shaking, and I pressed them flat against my knees until they stopped.

"Hi," I said to him. "It's been a long time."

"It's been, uh, six years," he said. "I didn't know about the baby, I swear."

"I saw the story, and I thought, that could be mine."

"You did the math fast."

"Well, we were together."

"We were together until January," I said. "The January before the gala."

"You took a job in Dayton, and you ended it with a text message that said, 'We want different things.'"

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