Линвуд Баркли - Find You First

As if they mattered.

“Okay,” Chloe said, “so this Nina Allman, she lives in Seattle and works at something called Pike’s?”

“Pike Place Market. Top tourist attraction in the city. You can get fresh fish, vegetables, anything. Great restaurants.”

“And Barbara Redmond?”

“Yes?”

“She’s an actress. Did you know that?”

“I did.”

“So I’ve got a half sister who’s done NCIS and The Good Place ? Looking at IMDb, they haven’t been big parts. Yogurt seller? Dead body?” She paused. “That’s not a good omen.”

“I hadn’t looked up her acting credits.”

“And this Neaseman guy, he’s not that far from Nina. He’s in Portland. The Oregon one. So what I’m thinking is, you start in Fort Wayne, since that’s closest, and blow this Roben guy’s mind by telling him you’re his dad and that maybe someone wants to kill him, then—”

“Just another day.”

Chloe shrugged, and continued. “And then you head to the coast, since everyone else is along there. Seattle, Portland, L.A. Start in the north and work south. You know I’ve never been west of Albany? Too bad I don’t have a half sibling in San Francisco. I’d love to see San Fran.”

Miles’s heart was pounding. He bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood.

“You’re right,” he said.

“About what?”

“Dorian did tell me something else.”

Chloe blinked. “What?”

“When they did the test, they were comparing your profile to mine.” He paused. His mouth was getting very dry. “Charise, do you have any water?”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

Keeping one hand on the wheel, Charise unzipped a small bag on the seat next to her. She pulled out a bottle of Aquafina and extended it, backhand, over the seat. Miles took it, but when he tried to unscrew the cap, he couldn’t make his fingers close around it.

“Here,” Chloe said, taking the bottle, cracking the seal, and returning it. Miles took a long sip and set the bottle into a cup holder between the seats.

“You were saying,” she said.

“They looked at my profile, and...”

Chloe’s face fell. “You’re sicker than you thought. This thing you’ve got, it’s moving faster?”

“No, not that. Something... worse. I think. Depending on how you look at things.”

“Jesus, just tell me,” Chloe said.

“I’m not your father.”

Her face did not move. She was dumbstruck. For several seconds, she had no words. Slowly, she retreated to her side of the car, leaning up against her door.

“I was as stunned as you are,” Miles said. “There’s no DNA match between us. I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s something Dr. Gold did. He falsified the records. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but he—”

Chloe erupted. “If you’re not my father then who the fuck is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, oh, that’s great.” She put a hand to her forehead and turned away, as if trying to escape him. “This is just absolutely fucking terrific. So he could be anybody. Anybody in the whole goddamn country.” She pointed to a man on the sidewalk, walking back and forth in front of an electronics store, wearing a sandwich board. “Maybe it’s him.”

Miles was betting it was Gold himself, but without proof he did not want to speculate. He said, “Chloe, I feel terrible about this.”

“Oh, you feel terrible? I thought one of the great mysteries of my life had been solved but it turns out it was all bullshit, but you feel terrible?”

Miles had no words.

Chloe shook her head and bit her lip. Her chin trembled. “I can’t believe this... I just can’t...”

She sniffed, and as her eyes began to mist she turned away so Miles couldn’t see her. “All of this was for nothing. I don’t really mean anything to you. You’re not anything to me.”

The words went into Miles like a knife.

“I can’t deal with this.” She leaned forward and said to Charise, “Stop the car.”

“Ms. Swanson, I’m about to get onto the interstate.”

“Stop the car.”

“Chloe, please,” Miles said. “It’s not like that. All I wanted to do was—”

“Stop the fucking car!” she screamed.

Charise hit the blinker and steered the limo over to the side of the road.

“You don’t even know where we are,” Miles said.

Chloe waved her phone. “You of all people should know there’s an app for that.” She pulled on the door handle, undid her seat belt, swung the door wide open, and got out.

“Please, Chloe!” Miles shouted.

But she had slammed the door before he could get her name out. Chloe slammed her hand on the car’s trunk as she walked off in the direction they’d come from.

Charise asked, “Do you want me to go after her?”

Miles had no doubt Charise could catch up with her, pick her up, and bring her back, but he couldn’t see the point.

“Let her go,” he said.

New Haven, CT

Caroline had received a text from him, that he was back after attending to some out-of-town business, so she found herself once again at the Omni Hotel — as always, in one of the nicer suites on an upper floor that afforded a view of Yale and much of the city — standing by the window, wearing the lingerie he’d laid out for her, silk blindfold in place, waiting for Broderick to arrive.

Sometimes she thought that this part, the anticipation, was what she enjoyed most. It was better than the actual sex itself, which was nothing to complain about. Waiting for the sound of the door opening, his barely perceptible steps across the carpet, his soft breathing, directly behind her. She was not allowed to turn around until after he had touched her. There were times when he would stand there for several minutes, so close she could feel the heat coming off his body, saying nothing.

Building the suspense.

Other times, things would move much more quickly. He’d walk right over and grab her. Yeehaw! That was fun, too, but she much preferred it when things moved slowly.

When she arrived, as always, the tub had been run. The champagne was open and chilling. She had filled one flute and sipped on it while she luxuriated in the tub.

She wondered what he did during this time. He would have had to come to the room first, prepare things, then leave. Caroline guessed he went down to the bar and had a drink. Was the anticipation as much fun for him as for her?

This time, it wasn’t just the sex that filled her with anticipation. She wanted to hear how things were going. She wanted an update.

When she’d first told him about her situation, about the terrible thing her brother-in-law had done, essentially cutting Gilbert — and by extension, her — out of his will, Broderick had seemed skeptical that there was anything to be done about it.

But it was so unfair, Caroline pleaded. Leaving his estate to a bunch of total strangers. Okay, sure, maybe they were the product of his seed, but that was a very clinical connection. Gilbert was his brother . Was there a stronger bond than that? The two had grown up together, shared a room when they were younger. How do you cut out someone like that and give the money to people you’ve never spent one moment with in their entire lives?

It was a gross injustice.

I’m no lawyer, Broderick had told her. Maybe she should talk to one. But it really should be Gilbert who initiated any legal action. Or maybe, he said, Caroline should talk to Miles and explain how devastating his decision had been to her husband.

He’d see right through that, Caroline thought. “And we have a bit of a history,” she admitted, without getting into details.