“No.”
My late mother’s surname was Bennett.
After she died, I legally returned to it.
When Adrian and I met, I was Claire Bennett.
I never hid my father in some elaborate deception.
My Husband Left Dur:ing Labor for His Mom’s Birthday—3 Days Later, He Went Pale When He Saw Who Held Our Son
Adrian knew Gideon Vale was my biological father in the abstract sense that I had once told him my father’s first name was Gideon and that we were not close.
He never asked much.
I never offered more.
He certainly never connected his wife to the Gideon Vale whose photograph hung in Northline’s Bellmere headquarters.
I wanted it that way.
Adrian hated inherited wealth.
Or claimed to.
When we were dating, he once called rich families “people born halfway up a ladder who spend their lives bragging about climbing.”
I had fallen in love with the fact that he liked me when he thought I was simply an accountant who rented a small apartment and drove a six-year-old car.
