The Heir's Question
Chapter 04 - The Heir's Question
Victoria ordered the gala coordinator to restart the music and announced that a minor staffing issue had been resolved. Inside the linen room, however, the Whitmore family’s carefully polished history was coming apart thread by thread.
Lucas asked Ava to take Lily home in his car. Ava refused. She would not place herself or her child inside anything controlled by the Whitmores. Instead, Rosa drove them to their apartment while Lucas followed in a separate vehicle.
The building embarrassed him, though Ava could tell he tried not to show it. The elevator had been broken for three months. Paint curled from the hallway walls. Inside, the apartment was clean and warm, decorated with thrift-store frames, school drawings, and paper stars hanging over Lily’s bed.
Lucas paused in front of a refrigerator crowded with report cards and photographs. Lily at the beach. Lily missing two front teeth. Lily asleep beside a science project. Six years of a life he had never seen.
“Why is he here?” Lily asked from the couch.
Ava knelt beside her. She had imagined this conversation many times, but never with mascara stains on her face and catering shoes cutting into her heels.
“Lucas knew me before you were born,” she said. “There is a chance he is your father.”
Lily studied him with solemn curiosity. “Did you know about me?”
The question stripped away his wealth, his title, and every prepared defense.
“No,” Lucas said. “But I should have looked harder for your mom. I’m sorry.”
Lily nodded as if evaluating a witness. “Mom always says sorry only matters if you fix what you broke.”
Ava nearly smiled. Lucas did not.
He asked for a DNA test. Ava agreed, but set conditions. No lawyers speaking to Lily. No press. No attempt to take custody. No money tied to silence.
“I don’t want to take her from you,” Lucas said.
“You don’t know what you want. Tonight you learned she exists.”
“I know I want the truth.”
“So do I.”
A hard knock struck the apartment door. A man in a dark overcoat stood in the hallway holding a sealed envelope. He introduced himself as Martin Hale, counsel for Victoria Whitmore.
“This concerns a confidentiality agreement signed by Ms. Monroe,” he said.
Ava’s stomach dropped. “I was coerced.”
Hale’s expression remained neutral. “Mrs. Whitmore is prepared to enforce it. She also believes public discussion of the child’s paternity could constitute an attempt at extortion.”
May you like
Lucas took the envelope, tore it in half, and let the pieces fall.
“Tell my mother,” he said, “that the next conversation happens with my attorney in the room—and this time, Ava gets a copy of everything.”
