Chapter 4 - THE SECOND SWING
“It makes perfect sense if you understand technology.”
Sophia stared at him.
Ryan was not good with technology.
Vanessa was.
The folder also contained a paternity test kit receipt.
Not results.
Just a receipt.
Then a photograph of Sophia outside a cafe with a man whose face was half-hidden by the reflection in the window.
The man was Owen.
Her brother.
They had met once, secretly, because Sophia wanted advice and was ashamed to call Caleb. Owen had hugged her outside the cafe. Someone had photographed it from across the street.
Vanessa.
Almost certainly Vanessa.
Sophia said, “That’s my brother.”
Ryan’s face twisted.
“You expect me to believe you’re meeting your brother in secret?”
“Yes, because you made every conversation with my family a fight.”
That sentence was too true.
He slapped the folder shut.
“Don’t turn this on me.”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“No, you’re doing what you always do. Making me look crazy.”
His breathing grew harder.
Sophia stepped back.
One hand went to her belly.
Ryan saw the movement and looked wounded.
As if her instinct to protect the baby from his rage insulted him more than the forged messages should have insulted her.
“I have never cheated on you,” she said.
He leaned closer.
“Then prove the baby is mine.”
“Ryan.”
“Prove it.”
“The fact that you would ask because Vanessa printed fake screenshots is the problem.”
He left that night.
Said he needed space.
Sophia slept with a chair angled against the bedroom door.
Not because she thought Ryan would hurt her.
Not consciously.
Because her body had begun understanding before her mind agreed.
The next morning, Vanessa came to the house.
Alone.
Sophia opened the door only because she thought it was a delivery.
Vanessa smiled.
“I know this is awkward.”
Sophia did not invite her in.
Vanessa stepped in anyway.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what Ryan is going through.”
Sophia’s jaw tightened.
“Ryan?”
“He’s devastated.”
“Because you lied to him.”
Vanessa’s smile faded.
There she was.
Not helpful assistant.
Not concerned friend.
Something colder.
“You don’t deserve him.”
Sophia almost laughed.
“Is that why you invented an affair?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You think you’re special because you’re pregnant.”
Sophia’s hand went to her stomach.
Vanessa’s eyes followed.
“He wanted a family. Not a trap.”
“Get out.”
“Ryan deserves truth.”
“Then stop creating lies.”
Vanessa looked toward the granite counter where Sophia’s phone lay.
“Call your brothers. Go ahead. Show him exactly who controls you.”
Sophia understood then.
Vanessa had studied the fracture.
She knew Ryan resented Caleb and Owen.
She knew Sophia was isolated.
She knew any reach for help could be spun as conspiracy.
So Sophia did something Vanessa did not expect.
She smiled.
Very slightly.
Vanessa frowned.
“What?”
Sophia said, “You missed one brother.”
Vanessa blinked.
Sophia did not explain.
Because Caleb and Owen were not her only brothers.
There was Ethan.
Not by blood.
By war, grief, and the strange family her parents built when she was twelve.
Ethan Cole had lived with the Bennetts for two years as a teenager after his mother died and his father vanished into addiction. He was Caleb’s best friend first, then something like an adopted son to Sophia’s parents, then the brother who never used the word because legal paperwork had failed what love already knew.
After Sophia’s parents died, Ethan joined the Army.
Later, private security.
Later, work he did not describe.
Ryan had met Caleb and Owen.
He had not met Ethan.
Sophia had not spoken to Ethan in years either.
Not directly.
But Caleb had once installed an emergency contact protocol on her phone after a stalking incident at her old job.
“If you ever need help and can’t explain, press this,” he said.
“I’m not a spy.”
“No. You’re my sister.”
“It sends to you?”
May you like
“To me, Owen, and Ethan. Location. Open line if possible.”
“That is excessive.”
