Chapter 5 - What Richard Bought
Richard arrived at the hospital wearing the expression Ethan had once mistaken for calm.
It was control.
He found his son in the waiting room at dawn.
Claire had stepped away to express milk. Ethan sat beside a paper cup of cold coffee, still wearing the previous day’s clothes.
“You look terrible,” Richard said.
Ethan looked up.
“What did you do to her?”
Richard glanced around.
“Keep your voice down.”
“It is down.”
“Then act like yourself.”
Ethan stood.
For thirty-eight years, that instruction had worked.
Act like yourself meant stop disappointing me.
It meant do not make a scene where anyone important could see.
It meant remember whose name you carry.
Now Ethan looked through the glass doors toward the neonatal corridor.
“I am,” he said.
Richard’s gaze followed his.
“So it’s true.”
“There are two babies.”
“Has paternity been established?”
“The test is being arranged.”
Richard sighed.
“At least you’ve retained some judgment.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Were the photographs altered?”
“Context was simplified.”
A coldness spread through Ethan.
“Were they from three years ago?”
Richard did not answer.
“Did you have someone contact her hospital?”
“I protected this family.”
“From a doctor you disliked?”
“From a woman who could complicate everything you built.”
“What I built?”
Richard’s face hardened.
“Don’t become sentimental about ownership.”
Ethan almost laughed.
There it was.
The sentence beneath every birthday speech, every congratulatory handshake, every reminder of what his father had sacrificed.
Nothing was Ethan’s if Richard could still threaten to take it away.
“My children are down that hall,” Ethan said.
“Potentially.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Say that again.”
Richard looked startled.
Then angry.
“You will not threaten me.”
“I’m asking you to leave.”
“You have responsibilities.”
“Yes. I do.”
Richard opened his mouth.
Ethan continued.
“You will not contact Claire. You will not contact her employer. You will not send attorneys to frighten her. Any communication goes through her lawyer.”
“You’re making a serious mistake.”
“I made it eight months ago.”
Richard left without another word.
Ethan watched until the elevator doors closed.
His knees felt weak.
He sat before they gave way.
When Claire returned, she noticed immediately.
“Was he here?”
“Yes.”
Her face drained.
“I told him to leave. I also told him all communication goes through counsel.”
“You don’t control him.”
“No,” Ethan said. “But I can stop helping him.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then a surgeon entered.
Noah’s procedure had gone as planned.
The next hours would require monitoring, but the team was encouraged.
Claire covered her mouth.
Ethan stayed still.
He wanted to reach for her.
He waited.
She sat down suddenly, and he moved the coffee cup before her elbow struck it.
It was a small thing.
It was the only thing she needed from him.
Later that afternoon, Ethan contacted independent counsel.
He requested preservation of all records related to the investigator, the photographs, and communications concerning Claire.
He also notified Calloway Biotech’s independent board chair that a personal matter might involve misuse of company resources.
The chair, Judith Park, asked one question.
“Are you prepared for what we might find?”
Ethan looked toward the corridor where his son was recovering.
“No,” he said honestly. “Do it anyway.”
The first answer arrived two days later.
The investigator had been paid through a consulting vendor attached to the company.
The invoice described reputational risk assessment.
The records included emails.
One message from Richard instructed the investigator to remove unrelated context.
Another requested a version suitable for Ethan.
Judith forwarded a summary through counsel.
Ethan read it in an empty hospital stairwell.
Then a final attachment appeared.
A payment authorization.
Not just Richard’s signature.
Vivian’s father had approved part of the expense.
Ethan sat on the stair.
Above him, footsteps passed.
Below him, a door slammed.
He thought about Vivian asking whether he would ever love her.
May you like
Then he called her.
“There’s something you need to see.”
