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Theo had meant to follow her to the hospital, honest to God. But as he’d collapsed into the sports car waiting for him at the airport, he hadn’t even driven the short distance to the Lincoln Tunnel before his vision closed in, creating a tunnel all its own.
So he’d veered off into a small park in Weehawken overlooking the river. Parking the car in the half-empty lot, he’d leaned his head against the steering wheel, feeling like he was going to die.
“Theo, what have you done?”The shriek of his mother’s voice over the crackle of the fire.“You’ve killed him!”
Pushing the memory away, Theo had stumbled out of the car into the small park, trying to catch his breath.
The August evening was sticky and hot. Leaning against the fence on the edge of the river, he could almost see his breath in the thick humid air, puffs of smoke like the ghosts of those he’d lost. The father he’d never known. The emotionally distant uncle who’d given him a home.
His mother. His stepfather.
Your fault, a dark voice whispered.You killed them both.
Now, Theo stared across the water, watching the shimmering glass skyscrapers on the horizon turn orange, then red, then finally violet, as the sun set slowly behind him.
It would be easy, he thought, just to drive back to the airport, and disappear—to Singapore or Dubai or anywhere. People might despise him for abandoning his wife and son.
Only Theo would know the truth: they’d be better-off without him.
Emmie was good and pure, his baby son an innocent soul. What happiness could a man like Theo possibly bring them? What could he do except cause them pain?
“There you are.”
Turning, Theo was astonished to see Nico Ferraro crossing the grass. He almost rubbed his eyes, just to be sure Nico, too, wasn’t a ghost. His friend smiled.
“My wife called. Said you were having a little trouble finding your way to the hospital.” Glancing back, he looked at Theo’s parked Maserati with the door still hanging open. “Car trouble?”
“How did you find me—” Then he remembered how last year, after his Lamborghini was stolen, he’d angrily told Nico he was going to put a GPS tracker in every car. His company’s head of security would be able to monitor his cars’ locations, under strict orders never to share the information with any woman, be she secretary, girlfriend, or wife who might invade Theo’s privacy. Emmie had no idea.
“Right,” Nico said, nodding with a grin. “I convinced Carter you might be in danger. He’s right over there, in fact, with a couple guys just in case.” He waved vaguely toward a black van on the far edge of the parking lot. Theo’s head of security nodded in return. “So,” Nico turned back, “what the hell are you doing here?”
“Nothing much,” Theo said tightly.
Snorting, Nico gestured to the van, and his head of security drove away. His friend faced Theo with a sigh. “So you’re just hanging out in a park. While your wife just went through labor alone and is now worried your mangled body is going to appear in the morgue. Which mademywife send me all over town looking for you, then drive to Jersey in traffic. Thanks for that, by the way.” He tilted his head. “What’s really going on?”
“I told you. Nothing.”
“Uh-huh.” Nico looked him over, then shook his head with a low laugh. “Look, I get it. I’ve been there. But my wife asked me to find you. So you have two choices. Either you phone Emmie and explain the truth about your little park excursion or...”
“Or?”
Nico’s dark eyes met his. “Or you come to the hospital with me right now. And I’ll explain about your car trouble.”
Theo felt trapped in a corner. His hands tightened, and for a moment, he actually considered a third option: punching his way out. Then he looked at his friend’s sympathetic but firm expression.
“Fine,” he growled.
So Nico drove him to the hospital, arranging for an employee to pick up the Maserati. Walking through the hospital’s revolving door, Theo felt numb. He followed Nico onto the tenth floor, past the nurses’ desk.
“It’s a little late for visiting,” a nurse objected as they walked past.
“Not at all. He’s the happy father of room 1035,” Nico said, pushing him forward.
Theo felt like he was walking through water, or in a nightmare blurry as a Renoir painting, as they rounded the corner into Emmie’s room. He saw Honora trying to entertain her toddler with a coloring book. Vases of colorful flowers beneath the hospital’s fluorescent light.
Outside, the night was now dark. The window’s glass reflected the image of an exhausted woman in the bed smiling down beatifically at the baby in her arms. And Theo saw himself, a dark-haired man standing at a distance like a stranger.
“Look what I found,” Nico said, and both women turned to them with a sob of relief.
