Adrian’s First Lie
Chapter 04 - Adrian’s First Lie
Claire walked outside before anyone could stop her.
Rain had started falling.
Not hard.
Just enough to bead on her bare shoulders and darken the pavement.
Adrian followed.
“Claire.”
She kept walking.
“Claire, please.”
She turned so quickly he nearly collided with her.
“You thought she might be my sister?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You thought it.”
“Yes.”
“For three months.”
“Yes.”
“And you came home to me every night.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“There was no version of this that didn’t hurt you.”
“So you picked the version where I looked stupid.”
“No.”
“That’s exactly what you did.”
She folded her arms around herself.
“I stood on that balcony thinking my husband was cheating on me. My father stood ten feet away knowing more about my life than I did. And the woman I thought was your mistress may be my sister.”
Adrian took a breath.
“I was trying to protect you until I knew whether Elena’s claim was real.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Men in my family have always called secrecy protection.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No? My father hid Rosa. My mother hid Harbor House. You hid Elena.”
“I am not your father.”
“Then stop acting like him.”
The words landed.
Adrian looked away.
Claire instantly regretted them.
She did not take them back.
He had to understand.
Love did not erase what he had done.
He reached into his jacket and removed his phone.
“I’ll show you everything.”
Claire stared at it.
“No.”
“You said you wanted the truth.”
“I do. But I don’t want to build my marriage around checking your phone.”
He lowered his hand.
Rain ran down the side of his face.
“When Elena contacted me, she didn’t know how to reach you without going through the foundation. Every route led back to Malcolm. She found my firm.”
“Why you?”
“Because my company represented Harbor House during the renovation dispute last year.”
Claire remembered.
Adrian had done the work pro bono.
She had praised him for it.
Now even that memory felt unstable.
“Elena told me Rosa believed Malcolm was her father. I thought it could be a scam. Then I met Rosa.”
Claire’s breath caught.
“You met her?”
“In Boston.”
The weekend.
The lie.
Adrian continued.
“She’s in a private care home outside the city. She didn’t ask me for money. She didn’t ask for access to you. She asked me one question.”
“What?”
“Whether Malcolm still controlled your life.”
Claire looked away.
That hurt more than it should have.
Adrian stepped closer but left space between them.
“I said no.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Was that another lie?”
He went still.
She could see the answer before he spoke.
“I didn’t know.”
A car pulled up at the curb.
Malcolm stepped out.
Of course he had followed.
He walked toward them with no umbrella, his tuxedo coat open.
“Claire, get in the car.”
She stared at him.
“No.”
“You are upset.”
“Yes.”
“You are being manipulated.”
“Maybe.”
His expression shifted.
He had expected obedience.
He had mistaken her pain for weakness.
Claire looked back through the glass door at Elena.
Then at Adrian.
Then at her father.
“I’m not going home with either of you.”
She took out her phone and called the one person in the city Malcolm could not intimidate.
Her aunt Rebecca.
Her mother’s younger sister.
Rebecca answered on the second ring.
“Claire? It’s after midnight.”
Claire swallowed.
“Did Mom know about Rosa Marquez?”
There was a long silence.
Too long.
Then Rebecca whispered, “Oh, God.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Another person.
Another secret.
May you like
“Come get me,” Claire said.
And for the first time that night, her father looked less afraid of Elena than he was of what Rebecca might finally say.
