Three Birth Certificates
Chapter 02 - Three Birth Certificates
Madeline came slowly down the marble staircase.
Her father tried to stop her.
“Madeline, please. Let security handle this.”
She pulled her arm away.
“No.”
Nathan still had not moved.
The oldest of the three boys—only older by eleven minutes, Claire always said—stared at him with frightened curiosity.
Nathan crouched slightly.
“What are their names?”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“You don’t know?”
The question struck harder than any accusation.
Nathan stood again.
“Claire, I was told—”
“I know what you were told.”
Claire opened the red leather handbag hanging from her shoulder.
She removed three folded documents.
Birth certificates.
Ethan Nathaniel Hale.
Oliver James Hale.
Noah William Hale.
Nathan’s name appeared in the same place on every page.
Father.
Madeline took one document from Claire.
Her hands began trembling.
“You have three children?”
Nathan looked at her.
“I didn’t know.”
Claire laughed once.
It was not a happy sound.
“You didn’t know?”
“I swear to you.”
“You signed the acknowledgment papers at the hospital.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“I never saw them.”
Claire stared at him.
For the first time, confusion interrupted her anger.
Madeline looked between them.
“What hospital?”
Claire answered.
“St. Catherine’s. Six years ago.”
Nathan stepped backward.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because six years ago, I was in London.”
Claire’s eyes filled with disbelief.
“No. You weren’t.”
Nathan reached inside his tuxedo jacket and pulled out his phone.
“I left for London three weeks before you gave birth.”
Claire shook her head.
“You came to the hospital.”
“No.”
“I saw you.”
Nathan’s face went white.
Claire remembered the man standing at the end of her hospital corridor.
Dark suit.
Nathan’s build.
Nathan’s voice.
She had been exhausted and medicated.
He had refused to enter the room.
But she had heard him say four words.
Tell her I’m sorry.
For six years, Claire had believed Nathan had looked at his newborn sons and walked away.
Now Nathan stared at the birth certificates as if they belonged to another man.
“I never knew you had the babies.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Nathan looked toward the mansion.
Toward a woman standing among the guests.
His mother.
May you like
Victoria Hale.
And suddenly Claire understood exactly who Nathan had been looking at.
