“Why does everyone keep reacting like that?”
Richard ignored her.
He walked toward my bed.
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t know yet.”
He looked toward the fetal monitor.
“And the baby?”
“Stable.”
He released a breath.
Then he turned toward his daughter.
“What did you do?”
“She’s exaggerating.”
Dr. Whitmore said, “We have video.”
Richard’s shoulders sank.
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“Fine. I kicked her. She was screaming at Daniel and—”
“Daniel?”
Richard turned toward me.
“Your husband?”
I nodded.
Vanessa said, “We’re together.”
Richard stared at his daughter.
“For how long?”
Vanessa said nothing.
I answered.
“Fourteen months.”
His face hardened.
“You’ve been having an affair with a married man whose wife is pregnant?”
“They’re basically separated.”
I laughed once.
“We had breakfast together this morning.”
Vanessa shot me a poisonous look.
Richard saw it.
“Enough.”
“You’re taking her side?”
“I’m taking the side of basic human decency.”
“You don’t even know her.”
Richard turned back toward me.
“No. But I knew her father.”
My heart stopped.
“My father?”
His eyes softened.
“Michael Bennett.”
I hadn’t heard anyone outside my family say Dad’s full name in years.
He died when I was twenty-seven.
Cancer.
Fast and merciless.
“You knew him?”
Richard nodded.
“Your father saved my company.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Dad—”
“Be quiet.”
She actually did.
Richard pulled a chair closer to my bed.
“Twenty-six years ago, Cole Meridian almost collapsed. A partner had falsified reports and hidden millions in liabilities. Your father was a young forensic accountant assigned by the lenders. He discovered it.”
That sounded like Dad.
Quiet.
Methodical.
Impossible to intimidate.
Richard continued.
“He could have handed over the evidence and walked away. Instead, he helped me restructure the business, protect our employees, and keep hundreds of people from losing their jobs.”
I swallowed hard.
Dad had rarely discussed work at home.
“He never told me.”
“He wouldn’t have.”
Richard smiled sadly.
“He also refused a percentage of the company when I offered it.”
That definitely sounded like Dad.
“Instead, he made me promise something.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
Richard glanced toward Vanessa.
And for the first time since arriving, shame entered his eyes.
“That if his family ever needed help and I was in a position to give it, I would not look the other way.”
Vanessa laughed in disbelief.
“You cannot be serious.”
Richard slowly stood.
“I have never been more serious.”
“Dad, this has nothing to do with your business.”
“It has everything to do with the kind of man I promised Michael Bennett I would remain.”
She stepped toward him.
“So what? You’re going to destroy your daughter over some twenty-six-year-old promise?”
“No.”
His voice became colder.
“You’re going to deal with the consequences of what you chose to do.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“What consequences?”
Richard looked toward Dana.
“Has she been arrested?”
“Police are on their way.”
Vanessa went pale.
“You called police?”
“I didn’t have to. Mrs. Bennett requested them.”
She looked at me with pure hatred.
“You’re really doing this?”
I placed one hand over my daughter.
“No, Vanessa.”
I looked directly at her.
“You did this.”
An officer entered a few minutes later.
He reviewed the security footage with hospital administration.
He spoke with me.
Then Dr. Harris.
Then Vanessa.
Daniel returned from the hallway when he realized police had arrived.
His concern suddenly became much more convincing.
“Officer, this was an accident.”
The officer glanced at the footage again.
“It doesn’t look accidental.”
Vanessa began crying.
Not quietly.
Not sincerely.
The kind of crying that appeared only after consequences arrived.
“Dad, please.”
Richard didn’t move.
“Tell them it was a misunderstanding.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“You know me.”
Richard’s expression nearly broke my heart.
“I thought I did.”
The officer told Vanessa she was being detained pending assessment of charges.
She stared at her father.
Then Daniel.
Then me.
“This woman is ruining my life!”
I shook my head.
“You had fourteen months to choose a different life.”
Security and police led her away.
Daniel watched.
When the door closed, he turned to Richard.
“This has gotten out of control.”
Richard looked at him as if he had just noticed him for the first time.
“You must be Daniel.”
Daniel straightened.
“Yes.”
Richard stepped closer.
“My daughter told me several months ago that she was seeing a man named Daniel. She told me he was divorced.”
Daniel said nothing.
Richard’s stare darkened.
“She told me you were an independent financial consultant.”
Again, silence.
I frowned.
Daniel was not an independent consultant.
He worked as vice president of finance for a regional development company.
Cole Meridian.
I stared at him.
“Daniel.”
His face drained.
Richard heard the change in my voice.
“What?”
I looked between them.
“Daniel works for you.”
Richard blinked.
“What department?”
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