Chapter 8 - The Man Outside the Glass
Lucy spent eleven days in the neonatal unit.
Claire measured those days in feeding attempts, pumping sessions, temperature checks, and the careful language of people trained not to promise too much.
Roman learned how to wash his hands exactly as instructed.
Hannah brought clean clothes.
Elaine arranged leave paperwork and told Claire the dispatch coordinator was doing well.
The world narrowed.
Not because the other problems disappeared.
Because a four-pound baby had become more important than all of them.
On the fourth afternoon, Blake came to the hospital.
Claire had known it would happen eventually.
Her attorney had already helped her plan how to handle contact while paternity and parenting arrangements were addressed.
Still, seeing him outside the family room made her heart lurch.
He carried a stuffed rabbit with a price tag still attached.
“I heard.”
Claire remained beside Hannah.
“Yes.”
“Can I see her?”
Claire studied him.
For months, she had wanted him to ask about Lucy.
Now the question came with consequences she could not solve through either anger or hope.
“We need to discuss that through the right channels.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“She’s a premature baby receiving medical care. This is about what she needs.”
Blake glanced toward Roman, who stood farther down the hallway.
“Of course he’s here.”
Claire’s exhaustion sharpened into clarity.
“He came when I called. You don’t get to make that an accusation.”
Blake’s grip tightened around the rabbit.
“I made mistakes.”
“Yes.”
“I want a chance.”
“Then start by respecting the process. Speak to your attorney. Follow the hospital’s rules. Stop turning every boundary into an insult.”
He stared at her.
For once, she could not tell whether he was angry or ashamed.
Perhaps both.
He left the rabbit with Hannah.
Then he walked away.
Claire sank into a chair.
Roman approached.
“Do you want company?”
She nodded.
He sat.
After a minute, she said, “I don’t know how to separate what he did to me from what Lucy might need someday.”
“You don’t have to solve all of someday in this hallway.”
Claire looked at him.
“Would you hate it if she knew him?”
Roman took time before answering.
“I’d hate anything that hurt her. My feelings can’t be the measure of what’s right for her.”
That answer made Claire cry harder than a declaration of love could have.
On the seventh day, investigators announced charges against Blake and Ellis.
The allegations involved fraud and related financial offenses.
Both denied wrongdoing initially.
The news appeared on Claire’s phone while she sat beside Lucy’s incubator.
She read the headline.
Then put the phone away.
Her daughter had opened her eyes.
That evening, Roman told her the company’s independent review had identified additional control failures.
He would fund restitution where the businesses bore responsibility, strengthen outside oversight, and cooperate with investigators.
“It will be expensive,” he said.
Claire adjusted the tiny blanket across her knees.
“Can you afford it?”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe expensive isn’t the important part.”
He smiled faintly.
“No.”
On the tenth day, Lucy completed the last milestones her care team wanted before discharge.
Claire listened to instructions with fierce concentration.
Feeding.
Follow-up visits.
Warning signs.
Phone numbers.
Hannah took notes.
Roman installed the approved car seat and had it checked.
Meanwhile, Claire’s housing search had produced a modest two-bedroom apartment close to Hannah.
Her lease would be in her own name.
The deposit came from her savings, helped by the clinic’s salary adjustment and a lawful repayment her attorney had negotiated from funds Blake still controlled.
Roman offered to carry boxes.
Claire accepted.
The night before discharge, she found him outside the nursery window.
He was looking at Lucy.
His reflection looked unexpectedly young.
“What are you thinking?” Claire asked.
“That she’s very small.”
“She is.”
“And that I’m already afraid of a remarkable number of things.”
Claire slipped her hand into his.
“That doesn’t go away, apparently.”
He glanced at her.
“I love you.”
The words came without ceremony.
Claire’s breath caught.
“You don’t have to answer,” he added.
“I know.”
She looked through the glass at her sleeping daughter.
Then back at the man beside her.
“I love you too.”
May you like
For once, love did not feel like a promise she had to keep alive by herself.
It felt like something being built from both sides.
