Chapter 4 - The Heartbeat Vincent Missed
The examination room was too quiet for a place where Claire's entire future was about to appear on a screen.
She lay back on the table with a paper sheet across her lap while Dr. Hannah Porter adjusted the monitor.
Lauren sat in the chair beside her, still wearing courtroom heels and holding Claire's purse as though she had been assigned an important diplomatic post.
"You can squeeze my hand," Lauren said.
"I'm not scared."
"I didn't say you were."
Claire squeezed it anyway.
Dr. Porter smiled.
"All right. Let's take a look."
The screen filled with gray shadows.
Claire stopped breathing.
At first she understood nothing she was seeing.
Then Dr. Porter pointed.
"There."
A tiny shape.
So small.
So impossibly real.
"And right here..."
A flicker.
Fast and bright.
Dr. Porter turned on the sound.
The room filled with a rapid rhythm.
Claire's eyes flooded instantly.
She had spent the last three days surrounded by contracts, lies, transaction logs, adultery, and threats disguised as negotiation.
None of it mattered in that sound.
For thirty seconds, Vincent did not exist.
Sophia did not exist.
There was only Claire and the little heart beating inside her.
"Strong heartbeat," Dr. Porter said. "You're measuring eight weeks and six days. Everything looks exactly where we want it."
Claire laughed through tears.
Lauren cried too and immediately denied it.
"Allergies," she muttered.
"In November?"
"Very aggressive allergies."
Dr. Porter printed several images and handed them to Claire.
She held one with both hands.
Eight weeks and six days.
A future no one could forge a signature onto.
On the way out, Claire stopped in the hallway.
"I should tell him."
Lauren did not answer immediately.
"Do you want to tell him?"
"He's the father."
"That's not what I asked."
Claire looked down at the ultrasound picture.
Did she want Vincent to know?
Part of her did.
The old part.
The woman who had spent four days imagining how his face would change when he saw tiny socks.
But another part of her wanted to protect the baby from becoming ammunition in a marriage Vincent was already trying to control.
"I don't know."
Lauren nodded.
"Then don't make the decision today."
They had almost reached the elevators when Claire heard a familiar voice behind them.
"Claire?"
Her body froze.
Vincent stood at the end of the hallway.
For one insane second, Claire wondered whether he had followed her.
Then she saw the older woman beside him with a bandaged wrist.
His mother, Elena Moretti.
Elena's eyes moved from Claire to the ultrasound photo in her hand.
The color left her face.
Vincent followed his mother's gaze.
Everything inside him stopped.
Claire knew the exact moment he understood.
His mouth parted, but no sound came out.
Lauren whispered, "Oh, hell."
Vincent walked toward them slowly.
"Is that...?"
Claire's fingers closed around the photograph.
He looked at her face.
Then at her stomach.
Then back at the image.
"Claire."
Elena covered her mouth.
"You're pregnant?"
Claire had always loved Vincent's mother. Elena was not an easy woman, but she had never treated Claire like an accessory to her son. When Claire and Vincent struggled unsuccessfully to conceive two years earlier, Elena had never once asked for a grandchild.
Claire could not lie to her.
"Yes."
Vincent gripped the back of a waiting-room chair.
"How long have you known?"
"Since before our anniversary."
The pain on his face was immediate.
"You were going to tell me that night."
It was not a question.
Claire said nothing.
His eyes filled.
She had seen Vincent Moretti angry, triumphant, exhausted, drunk, grieving, and once terrified during a turbulent flight over the Atlantic.
She had never seen him look ashamed.
Not truly.
Until then.
"The box," he whispered.
Claire looked down.
"The socks were for the baby."
Vincent closed his eyes.
Elena turned away as tears spilled down her face.
"Oh, Vincent," she said.
Two words.
No yelling.
No accusation.
They seemed to destroy him more effectively than anything Claire could have said.
Vincent stepped closer.
"Can I see it?"
Claire's instinct was to protect the picture against her chest.
Then she looked at the man who had broken her heart and remembered that whatever happened between them, this child had two parents.
She held out the ultrasound.
Vincent took it as if it were made of glass.
His hands shook.
"Eight weeks?"
"Almost nine."
He stared at the image.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes."
"Heartbeat?"
Claire swallowed.
"Strong."
A tear slipped down his cheek.
He wiped it away quickly, but Elena saw.
So did Claire.
For one dangerous moment, memory attacked her.
Vincent painting the nursery they had once prepared before a chemical pregnancy ended almost as soon as it began.
Vincent holding Claire in bed afterward and whispering, "Someday."
Vincent saving the tiny positive test in the back of his sock drawer because he could not bear to throw it away.
Love did not vanish just because trust did.
That was the cruelty of it.
"I want to be there," he said.
Claire's eyes hardened.
"You don't get to make demands."
"I'm not demanding."
"You told Lauren we weren't getting divorced. You told me to come home. You keep talking like this is a crisis you can manage."
Vincent looked at the ultrasound.
"I know I don't deserve anything from you."
"Then start acting like you know it."
He nodded slowly.
Elena stepped between them, not to interfere but to steady herself.
"Claire, whatever you decide about my son, I hope you know I am here for you. Not for him. For you and the baby."
Claire's throat tightened.
"Thank you."
Vincent handed back the ultrasound.
"Can I have a copy?"
Claire hesitated.
Then Dr. Porter emerged from the examination area carrying Claire's chart.
Claire asked for another print.
When she handed it to Vincent, he stared at it for a long time.
"I missed the first heartbeat."
Claire's answer was quiet.
"You made a choice about where to be."
He flinched.
She did not enjoy hurting him.
That surprised her.
She wanted consequences, not cruelty.
Lauren touched Claire's arm.
"We should go."
Vincent looked up suddenly.
"Wait. The message I sent yesterday. About the company. I need to explain it."
Lauren's expression returned to business.
"Through counsel."
"Fine. But quickly."
"Why?"
Vincent looked at Claire.
"Because I think Sophia has been stealing from Moretti Hospitality, and I think Halcyon may be part of how she planned to cover it."
Claire stared at him.
"You slept with someone you suspected of stealing from us?"
"I didn't suspect her until yesterday."
"Convenient."
"I know how it sounds."
"Do you? Because every hour, it sounds worse."
Vincent's jaw tightened, but he did not defend himself.
"Three months ago, our chief financial officer found irregular vendor payments. I started the Halcyon process because the company has too much debt tied to two new properties. If lenders discovered a fraud investigation before we refinanced, they could call certain covenants. Sophia said Halcyon could stabilize us fast."
Lauren said, "And you didn't tell the board?"
"I told the audit committee there were irregularities. I did not identify a suspect because I didn't have one."
"And Sophia?"
"She had access to acquisition planning and vendor diligence. I thought she was helping me trace the leak."
Claire gave him an incredulous look.
"While sleeping with you."
"Yes."
At least he no longer tried to soften it.
"Why should we believe you now?" Lauren asked.
Vincent looked down at the ultrasound picture in his hand.
"You shouldn't. Not because I ask you to."
He pulled out his phone.
"But last night I checked the access logs after Claire confronted me about the signature. Sophia downloaded vendor ledgers she had no reason to access. She also copied the Halcyon escrow instructions."
Lauren's face changed.
"Escrow instructions?"
"Closing funds."
"Forty-eight million dollars?"
"Not all of it. But enough."
Claire felt cold.
Vincent continued.
"I froze her company credentials at six this morning. Twenty minutes later, she tried to access the system remotely."
"Does she know you froze her?"
"Yes."
"Does she know Claire found the forged signature?"
"Obviously."
Lauren swore under her breath.
Vincent's phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
His expression changed so suddenly Claire knew the message mattered.
"What?" she asked.
Vincent turned the screen toward them.
It was a security alert from his home office.
Motion detected.
Another alert followed.
BACK DOOR OPENED - 10:42 A.M.
Elena frowned.
"Who is at the house?"
Vincent tapped into the camera feed.
The image loaded.
A woman in a cream coat crossed the rear hallway of the Moretti house.
Sophia.
Claire's breath caught.
Vincent went pale.
"My office safe."
"What's in it?" Lauren asked.
He looked at Claire.
"Original corporate seals. Old shareholder certificates. Backup authentication tokens."
Claire's stomach dropped.
"Can she get into it?"
"She shouldn't be able to."
On the phone screen, Sophia stopped outside Vincent's office.
Then she reached into her handbag.
And pulled out a key.
Vincent whispered one word.
"Impossible."
Claire stared at the woman who had once stolen a love letter from a dorm-room desk.
Ten years later, Sophia Reynolds was standing inside Claire's home with a key no one had knowingly given her.
And suddenly Claire understood something she should have understood from the beginning.
May you like
Sophia had never been interested in taking only a man.
This time, she intended to take everything.
