Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
The childbirth class met in a conference room on the hospital’s third floor, where ten expectant mothers and their chosen support people sat in a wide circle. Abby took the chair between Sadie and Evan and balanced a packet of diagrams on the narrow shelf attached to her seat.
Evan had arrived directly from work with his tie folded into his coat pocket. He listened to the instructor with the concentration he usually reserved for investors, taking notes when she discussed the stages of labor and asking which complications were most likely to change Abby’s birth plan.
Sadie leaned toward Abby while the instructor demonstrated breathing techniques. “He knows this isn’t an exam, doesn’t he?” she whispered as she glanced at the notes filling Evan’s page.
“I’m not sure.” Abby lowered her voice and watched Evan underline something about timing contractions. “He may expect a certificate at the end.”
Evan looked up from the packet. “I can hear both of you.”
“Then you should know we’re impressed,” Sadie said as she sat upright again. “Most of the other support people stopped listening when she mentioned the placenta.”
The instructor asked them to move to the padded mats along the wall. Evan helped Abby lower herself to the floor, then sat behind her while she practiced leaning against his chest and breathing through an imaginary contraction.
His hands rested loosely beneath her stomach. When the instructor dimmed the lights and asked everyone to close their eyes, Abby felt Evan’s breath against her hair and allowed herself to settle into his body.
“Better?” he murmured as he adjusted the pillow behind his back. “You were holding your shoulders up.”
“Better.” Abby covered one of his hands with hers. “You can stop taking notes now.”
“She said there will be a section on newborn care next week.” Evan lowered his voice further. “I’m saving room.”
Abby smiled without opening her eyes. For several minutes, the room held only the instructor’s quiet directions and the uneven breathing of people trying not to feel foolish.
The peace lasted until Abby’s phone vibrated inside her purse. She ignored the first call, but a second followed before the exercise ended.
During the break, she checked the screen and found two missed calls from her attorney. A message beneath them asked her to call as soon as she was somewhere private.
“I need to take this,” Abby said as she accepted Evan’s hand and stood. “It’s my attorney.”
Evan’s expression sharpened. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“Give me a minute first.” Abby picked up her purse and looked toward Sadie. “I’ll be in the hallway.”
Her attorney answered before the first ring finished. He asked whether Abby was alone, then told her Hudson had filed a petition seeking legal confirmation of paternity and a temporary order preventing Abby from relocating with the baby after the birth.
“I’m not relocating,” Abby said as she walked toward the windows at the end of the hall. “I haven’t discussed moving anywhere.”
“The petition claims Evan’s company may require him to move,” her attorney replied. “Hudson is arguing that your relationship creates a risk that you will remove the child from the state before custody can be established.”
Abby stared through the glass at the parking garage across the street. “Evan hasn’t asked me to move. His company is here.”
“The request is speculative, and I don’t expect the court to grant it without evidence.” Papers shifted near the phone. “The larger concern is the language Hudson used in the filing. He describes Evan as violent and alleges that the relationship began before the engagement ended.”
“That’s a lie.” Abby gripped the phone until the edge pressed into her palm. “Evan punched him once, after we found them at the hotel. Nothing happened between Evan and me until months later.”
“I know, and we can document the timeline.” Her attorney paused before continuing. “Hudson attached photographs of Evan entering and leaving your building. Some were taken weeks ago, and at least one appears to have been taken overnight.”
Abby turned from the window and scanned the hallway. A nurse pushed a cart through the doors at the opposite end, but no one seemed to be watching her.
“He had someone following us?” she asked as nausea rose into her throat. “Is that legal?”
“Photographs taken from a public street generally are.” Her attorney’s voice remained calm. “Do not contact Hudson. I’ll send you the filing, and we’ll meet tomorrow morning to prepare the response.”
The classroom door opened behind Abby. Evan stepped into the hallway but stopped when she raised her hand.
“There’s something else,” her attorney said.
“A reporter writing a feature on Evan’s company called my office asking for comment on a claim that Evan assaulted the father of your child and then began an affair with you.
I don’t know who provided the information, but you should assume the court filing will become public. ”
Abby closed her eyes. “Can they print my name?”
“They can report information from a public filing.” Her attorney softened his tone. “I’m sorry, Abby. I’ll contact Evan’s counsel once you authorize me to share the petition.”
“Share it.” Abby opened her eyes and found Evan waiting several feet away. “I’ll call you after I read everything.”
She ended the call. Evan approached slowly, his attention fixed on her face.
“What did Hudson do?” he asked as he kept his hands at his sides. “Tell me what you need first.”
“He filed to establish paternity.” Abby folded one arm beneath her stomach and held the phone against her chest. “He’s also asking the court to prevent me from moving with the baby because your company might take you somewhere else.”
Evan’s jaw tightened. “I haven’t asked you to move.”
“I know.” Abby looked toward the classroom door as the break ended. “He included photographs of you leaving my apartment and accused you of assaulting him and saying we were sleeping together before that happened.”
“The punch happened.” Evan’s voice remained controlled, though anger changed the shape of each word. “The rest is false.”
“A reporter is already calling, digging up dirt on your company.” Abby watched comprehension enter his expression. “You need to tell your board before someone else does.”
Evan reached for his phone. “I’ll call our attorney now.”
“Go.” Abby touched his sleeve before he stepped away. “Sadie will take me home.”
“I’m not leaving you here to handle this alone.” Evan put the phone back in his pocket. “The board can wait until I know what you need.”
“I need you to protect the company, everything you’ve built.” Abby heard the urgency in her own voice and lowered it. “Hudson wants us to panic and make this worse. Sadie is here, and my attorney already scheduled a meeting for the morning.”
Evan studied her for several seconds. “Call me the moment you get home.”
“I will.” Abby squeezed his hand once before releasing it. “Tell them the truth before Hudson tells it for you.”
The petition arrived by email while Sadie drove Abby home. Forty-two pages of legal language reduced the last seven months of her life to allegations, dates, and requests for relief.
Hudson identified himself as an attentive, eager father excluded from the pregnancy by a vindictive former fiancée.
He claimed Abby had become emotionally dependent on Evan immediately before the hotel confrontation and suggested Evan used that dependence to interfere with Hudson’s attempts at reconciliation.
The photographs appeared near the end. In one, Evan carried groceries through the entrance to Abby’s building, while another showed him leaving shortly after six in the morning wearing the same clothes he had worn the evening before.
Abby enlarged the second image and saw herself behind the lobby glass. She had walked downstairs because Evan left his scarf on her chair, and the photograph captured her reaching toward him with it in her hand.
“He made affection look like evidence,” Abby said as she passed the phone to Sadie. “Every photograph is from after Evan and I started seeing each other.”
Sadie glanced at the image before returning her attention to the road. “Then the dates will prove that.”
“People won’t remember the dates.” Abby took the phone back and scrolled through the filing. “They’ll remember that Evan hit him and slept at my apartment while I was pregnant.”
“People who matter will know the order in which those things happened.” Sadie tightened her hands around the steering wheel. “Hudson is counting on shame to make you retreat before anyone examines his claims.”
Abby knew her sister was right, yet the knowledge did not stop her from checking the sidewalk when they reached the apartment. No photographer waited near the entrance, but she closed the curtains as soon as she stepped inside.
Evan called at eight. Abby had spent the previous hour with her attorney marking false statements in the petition and gathering messages that established when her relationship with Evan changed.
“The board knows,” Evan said after Abby answered. “Our attorney sent them the filing and the hotel security report.”
“What did they say?” Abby sat on the edge of her bed and pressed one hand into her lower back. “Are the investors pulling out?”
“Nobody has pulled out.” Evan sounded as if he were walking quickly, and a door closed behind him. “They’re concerned about the assault and the suggestion that I began a relationship with you before ending my engagement.”
“You can prove that isn’t true.” Abby looked at the framed ultrasound photograph on her bedside table. “We didn’t even kiss until months later.”
“I know.” Evan stopped moving. “Their concern is how long it will take to prove anything once the story is public.”
Abby heard voices beyond the door on his end of the call. “What are they asking you to do?”
“Nothing has been decided.” Evan lowered his voice. “The attorneys want a written timeline tonight. I need to finish it before the board meets again in the morning.”