It was the wrong answer.
Maybe the only honest one.
Celeste looked at him like he had slapped her.
Outside the hospital room, voices rose in the hallway. Wedding guests had followed them. A groomsman. Celeste’s mother. A photographer still holding his camera. Someone whispered, “Is that the ex-wife?”
No.
Not ex-wife.
Not anymore.
Witness.
Shareholder.
Mother.
Survivor.
Celeste’s father arrived last.
Arthur Bellamy was a tall man with silver hair and the kind of face that made employees stand straighter. He was still wearing his formal suit from the wedding, but the flower on his lapel had been crushed.
He looked at me first.
Then at the baby.
Then at Dominic.
“What did you do?”
Dominic straightened instantly.
“Arthur, this is being blown out of proportion.”
Simone handed Arthur a copy of the injunction.
“The merger cannot legally proceed today.”
Arthur read the first page.
His jaw hardened.
