Chapter 3 - The parking garage seemed suddenly colder.
Derek watched her carefully.
“He could have suspended the project long before the gala.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“I don’t know.”
Chloe’s fingers tightened around the pages.
Derek said, “Ask him.”
For once, there was no triumph in his voice.
Only exhaustion.
“Ask him why he waited until the exact night I humiliated you.”
A black sedan turned into the garage.
Dominic’s.
Chloe recognized it immediately.
The rear door opened before the car had fully stopped.
Dominic stepped out.
He took in Derek, Leo, Chloe and the documents in her hands.
Then he looked at Chloe’s face.
He knew.
“Derek,” Dominic said.
“No,” Chloe interrupted.
Dominic stopped.
Derek looked between them.
Chloe held up the papers.
“Is it true?”
Dominic’s expression revealed nothing.
“You knew about the discrepancies before the gala?”
“Yes.”
The answer struck harder because he did not attempt to soften it.
“How long?”
“Seventeen days.”
“Why didn’t you act?”
Derek gave a bitter laugh.
Dominic ignored him.
“I was waiting for confirmation.”
“Did you have confirmation before the gala?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Chloe’s heart sank.
“So Derek is right.”
“About that fact.”
“Why?”
Dominic looked at Leo.
“Take Derek upstairs to the lobby.”
Derek started protesting.
Chloe snapped, “Go.”
Everyone froze.
Derek looked at her.
Then, perhaps sensing that this was no longer his story, he followed Leo toward the elevator.
Chloe and Dominic remained alone.
Rainwater hissed beneath tires somewhere near the garage entrance.
“Tell me,” she said.
Dominic approached.
She stepped backward.
He stopped immediately.
That saved him.
Barely.
“I knew Derek’s company was compromised,” he said. “I planned to terminate the financing.”
“But you waited.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Martin Shaw offered me something in exchange for overlooking part of the fraud.”
Chloe frowned.
“What?”
“Information.”
“About what?”
“You.”
She felt suddenly nauseated.
“Explain that very carefully.”
“Martin knew Derek’s finances. He knew the joint accounts. He knew Derek had moved marital assets into business entities after you became pregnant.”
Chloe’s face drained.
“What?”
“Money that should have remained marital property was being used to cover company losses.”
“Did Derek know?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt, but not unexpectedly.
“Why did Martin tell you?”
“He was trying to save himself.”
“And you?”
“I told my attorneys to document everything so the money could be traced when you eventually needed it.”
“When I eventually needed it?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I had seen the way Derek treated you.”
“You were planning my escape before I even knew you.”
“I was preparing evidence.”
“You had no right.”
“No.”
Again.
No excuse.
No argument.
Just agreement.
Chloe pressed a hand beneath her belly.
“You watched me.”
“At public events.”
“You investigated my marriage.”
“I investigated a borrower stealing money through assets jointly owned with his wife.”
“Don’t hide behind business language.”
His jaw tightened.
“I noticed you before any of that.”
There it was.
Chloe stared at him.
Dominic continued.
“I noticed you eight months before the gala. You were presenting redevelopment ideas at a housing foundation dinner.”
Chloe remembered.
Derek had complained afterward that she talked too much.
“You remembered that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were the only person in that room discussing families instead of profit per square foot.”
Chloe swallowed.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“When Derek’s name later appeared on the Harbor Point shortlist, I remembered yours. Then the financial discrepancies surfaced. When I learned he had transferred marital assets while you were pregnant, I started paying attention.”
“So you were waiting for a chance to save me.”
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
“I was waiting for you to decide whether you wanted saving.”
She stared at him.
“The gala was the first time you said it out loud.”
“Said what?”
“No.”
The same word she had spoken to Derek.
Dominic took a slow breath.
“When you said no and he ignored it, I stepped in.”
Chloe wanted to remain angry.
Part of her was.
Maybe always would be.
“You should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“Immediately.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think that night was coincidence.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
For the first time, Dominic looked uncertain.
“Because I was afraid you’d think I engineered it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you invite Vanessa?”
His face hardened.
“Absolutely not.”
“Did you encourage Derek to bring me?”
“No.”
“Did you manipulate the gala?”
“No.”
“Then why hide it?”
Dominic looked at her for a long moment.
“Because powerful men have spent your entire marriage arranging your life behind your back, and I had already become another one before I understood what I was doing.”
The honesty took the air from her anger.
He continued.
“I thought gathering information was protection. In my world, it is. But you weren’t one of my companies. You weren’t an asset.”
His eyes held hers.
“You were a woman who deserved to be asked.”
Chloe’s throat tightened.
“And you didn’t ask.”
“No.”
“What happens now?”
“You decide.”
Before Chloe could answer, pain seized her abdomen.
She doubled over.
Dominic’s expression changed instantly.
“Chloe?”
“Wait.”
The contraction tightened until she could barely breathe.
Dominic took one step toward her.
Then stopped.
Even now.
“Can I touch you?”
Through the pain, Chloe almost laughed.
“Yes.”
He caught her.
Her fingers crushed his forearm.
When the contraction finally eased, Chloe exhaled shakily.
“I think that was real.”
Dominic looked at his watch.
“How long since the last one?”
“What last one?”
His eyes widened.
“You’ve had others?”
“My back’s been hurting all afternoon.”
“Chloe.”
“What?”
“You’re in labor.”
“I am not having this baby in a parking garage.”
“No argument from me.”
Twenty minutes later they were heading toward the hospital.
Chloe sat in the back seat breathing through another contraction.
Dominic sat beside her.
He had not touched her again.
Finally she held out her hand.
He looked at it.
“Are you going to make me ask?”
A faint smile appeared.
He took it.
Labor lasted eleven hours.
There was nothing glamorous about it.
Nothing romantic.
Chloe sweated, cursed and at one point informed Dominic that if he ever told anyone she had squeezed his hand while screaming, she would personally destroy every one of his companies.
“I believe you,” he said.
“You should.”
At 5:48 the next morning, their daughter entered the world furious.
Her cry filled the delivery room.
Chloe collapsed against the pillows, sobbing.
The nurse lifted the tiny red-faced baby.
“Mom, would you like her on your chest?”
“Yes.”
The child settled against Chloe’s skin.
For several minutes nothing else existed.
Not Derek.
Not Dominic.
Not money.
Not the divorce.
Just Chloe and the daughter she had promised herself would never learn that love required becoming smaller.
Eventually Chloe looked toward Dominic.
He stood a few feet away.
Watching.
Not approaching.
Not assuming.
His eyes were wet.
“Come here,” she whispered.
He moved to the bedside.
Chloe shifted their daughter slightly.
“Do you want to hold her?”
Dominic looked terrified.
That made Chloe smile.
“I don’t know how.”
“Neither do I.”
The nurse helped transfer the baby into his arms.
Dominic’s enormous hands looked absurd around seven pounds of blankets.
The baby fussed once.
Then settled.
Dominic stared down at her.
A tear traveled slowly along the scar crossing his eyebrow.
“What’s her name?” he asked.
Chloe had spent months considering names.
She finally knew.
“Eleanor Grace Bennett.”
“Bennett?”
“My name.”
Dominic looked at her.
Chloe smiled.
“I took it back yesterday.”
He nodded.
“Eleanor Grace Bennett.”
Their daughter yawned.
Dominic looked completely undone.
Chloe watched him for a moment.
Then said, “I’m still angry with you.”
“I know.”
“You should have told me everything.”
“Yes.”
“I may be angry for a while.”
“I can live with that.”
“And this does not mean you automatically get to play father.”
Dominic looked down at Eleanor.
Then back at Chloe.
“I know.”
“If Derek does the work and becomes safe, she deserves the chance to know him too.”
Dominic’s jaw shifted.
It was clearly not his favorite idea.
But he nodded.
“She does.”
Chloe studied him.
“No threats?”
“No.”
“No making Derek disappear?”
A pause.
“Define disappear.”
“Dominic.”
He almost smiled.
“No.”
“Good.”
Weeks later Derek entered counseling.
Not because Dominic forced him.
May you like
Because Chloe told him the only road toward his daughter began with accepting responsibility.
Derek initially complied for the wrong reason.
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