Chapter 20: The Lobby

The lobby of the Merrick tower had a marble floor and a revolving door, and outside the glass there were thirty cameras.

I saw them before I saw anything else.

They were pressed against the doors in a wall of flashes and lenses and open mouths.

A taxi sat at the curb, boxed in by the crowd.

Through its back window I saw a knitted cardigan and a small green coat.

"That's him," I said. "That's my son."

"Stay here," Lachlan said.

"Don't you dare tell me to..."

"Imogen." His hand closed over mine. "They'll go for your face. Let me take the first hit."

He pulled off his suit jacket and went out through the revolving door.

I watched through the glass as the cameras turned on him.

"Mr. Merrick! Is the boy yours?"

"Mr. Merrick, was there an affair?"

"Is there an heir?"

He did not answer a single question.

He walked straight through the crowd to the taxi and opened the rear door.

He lifted my son out of Ansel's mother's lap.

Rory clung to his neck.

Lachlan wrapped the jacket over the boy's head and shoulders and pulled it tight.

Then he turned his back on the lenses.

He carried my son through thirty cameras and a hundred shouting people, with one arm over his curls.

A man shoved a microphone into his ribs.

Lachlan put the man aside with his free hand and kept walking.

He came through the revolving door with the jacket still over the boy's head, and his shirt soaked at the collar.

Security closed the glass behind him.

"Mama?" The jacket moved. "It's dark in here. It smells like a man."

I took Rory into my arms and pulled the jacket back.

His face was wet, but he was not crying.

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