Chapter 8 #2
He frowned. “Chloe, what do you mean?” Again she buried her face in her hands, preventing her from answering.
He looked at Lillian and his mother and gestured for them to step back.
“Did you say you’ve been lying?” She didn’t reply, but perhaps his uncertainty about her had been justified.
He didn’t want to think so, and certainly didn’t want to believe it, but here she was, a bundle of emotions sobbing at his mother’s table.
“Chloe.” He spoke firmly and a bit loudly in an effort to get through to her. He wasn’t angry, just confused. He needed clarity. “Chloe, tell me.”
Finally the sobs quieted. Without looking up, Chloe reached for her cloth napkin and dabbed at her cheeks with it before she turned to look at him. She looked pitiful and small and frightened. He realized he was scaring her and leaned slightly back in his chair.
“Chloe, please explain.” Unexpected pity for her caught him off guard, but at the same time so too did anger. What had she lied about? What had she done?
“Chloe, tell us,” Lillian bade, her voice gentle. “We’ll help you.”
“If we can,” Nathaniel said, frowning at his sister. He turned back to Chloe. “What did you lie about, Chloe?”
She finally met his gaze, and spoke, her voice low and shaky. “I lied about Eliza and the friend,” she began.
She paused so long that Nathaniel was about to coax her to continue until his mother shook her head. He waited impatiently. What was she talking about? Had he completely misjudged her?
Chloe took a deep, shuddering breath and spoke again. “Eliza … she isn’t the daughter of a friend of mine.”
Nathaniel frowned, confused. “Then why are you looking for her?” She looked at him, her expression one of abject misery.
“She’s my daughter,” Eliza moaned. She crumpled inward, pulling her arms tightly around her, unable or unwilling to meet any of their eyes. With hunched shoulders, she confessed. “She’s mine. I … she’s mine.”
Hers? She had a daughter? “Why didn’t you just tell us?” He wanted to know more, but it was clear that she wasn’t willing to share, at least for now. He decided not to press, except for one question, one that also had legal ramifications that he should know about.
“Where’s her father?”
To his dismay, she shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied, followed by a sniffle. “I haven’t … I haven’t seen him since before Eliza was born.”
Her confession stunned him. He stood, glanced at his mother and sister, both also gaping.
He didn’t know what to say. A myriad of emotion swept through him ranging from pity to anger.
She needn’t have lied about her relationship with the child she was looking for at the orphanage, did she?
And what had happened to the child’s father—
She was married. Or was she? He glanced at Lillian and saw a confused expression on her face.
“Chloe, you’re married?” Lillian asked. “You haven’t seen your husband for what, nearly seven years?”
Chloe froze. It was as if the word husband suddenly struck her like a blow. She winced and once again gave a small, single nod.
Nathaniel didn’t know what to think. Had she been abandoned?
Possibly abused? She seemed afraid, that was for sure, and there was no more reasons for her to lie.
Or were there? He felt a slow anger growing inside him at the thought of someone treating Chloe badly.
She was a petite woman, but a determined and courageous one.
He couldn’t imagine what kind of emotional strength it took for her to search for a missing baby all these years—
Yet why was she searching for a missing baby, now six years old, after giving her to an orphanage? Had she been searching all these years? He glanced up at his mother, looking just as dismayed as he. He couldn’t help but ask the question.
“You gave up your child, Chloe. When and why?”
Again, he didn’t think Chloe would answer but she finally looked up at him and didn’t look away. “Not long after she was born,” she sighed.
Her voice was so soft he had to lean closer to understand. “Why?”
“Because I was afraid he would find me. Us. I couldn’t allow that to happen.”
“Where have you been all these years? Looking for her?”
Chloe slowly shook her head, her eyes awash with new tears. “I couldn’t. I’ve been running and hiding.” She looked at him once more. “I need to find her, Nathaniel. I need … I need to make sure she’s all right. I …”
“That’s enough for now,” Dalia said gently. “Come along, Chloe, let’s get you up to your room. You need to rest.”
He had more questions but he could see for himself how exhausted she was. She looked ready to collapse. Chloe said nothing as she started to stand. She stood. The moment she stepped away from the table and took a step, her knees crumpled.
Nathaniel rushed forward and caught her in his arms. He gazed down at her face and the dazed, almost vacant expression in her eyes.
He looked to his mother and nodded but said nothing.
Moments later, both his mother and Lillian hurried before them up the stairs and he followed, then laid Chloe gently onto the bed in her room. He turned to them.
“I need to talk to her. In private,” he said. “But not now.”
Lillian followed him downstairs. Just before he reached for the front door, she turned to him, holding him back a moment with a hand on his arm. “What are you going to do, Natty?”
At the moment, he had no idea. He simply shook his head and left the house.