Untitled Part 3
"Okay. I'll wait for you out here, Claire."
I lay back in the reclined exam chair and waited.
The birthday she'd mentioned had only been two months ago.
I'd thought Ethan was still away on business in London.
Then he had appeared in front of me without any warning.
Even now, I could still remember the shock of happiness, the way my heart had leaped.
I just didn't know why I could no longer feel what that version of me had felt.
I spent a week in the hospital.
And during that entire time, Ethan never showed up again.
A strange kind of emotional exhaustion had settled over me.
I no longer had the energy to care the way I used to—to wonder whether Vanessa would use Daisy as an excuse to get close to Ethan while I was gone.
When I was discharged and got home, Ethan was still at the office.
The moment I pushed open the door, my eyes met Daisy's.
She was sitting on the couch watching TV.
A five-year-old didn't know how to hide her feelings.
She went rigid the instant she saw me.
Her two small hands were clenched around something.
I lowered my gaze and went straight to my room.
I knew then that I would never be able to treat her the way I had before, without any resentment at all.
That afternoon, Vanessa came.
She dragged an empty suitcase into the living room, dropped it onto the floor, and immediately started packing Daisy's things.
The nanny hurried over to stop her.
"Ms. Sterling, what are you doing?"
"I'm taking Daisy to stay with me for a while."
Her voice was sharp, full of righteous anger.
"Someone loses her baby because she wasn't careful, and now she wants to blame my daughter for it?"
"I'm not letting anyone make my child suffer for that."
"If Ethan has a problem with it, he can take it up with me."
Daisy was still clutching that unknown object in her hands, standing there silently like a little statue.
The nanny looked at me helplessly.
"Mrs. Sterling, please say something."
"Please tell her you'll treat Daisy the same as before."
"Mr. Sterling specifically said she wasn't allowed to take Daisy."
Daisy lifted her head and looked at me with those dark, glossy eyes.
Maybe I imagined it, but I thought I saw a flicker of hope in them.
"Let her take her," I said.
"I really don't want to see her right now anyway."
The next second, a crisp sound of something shattering rang out beside us.
Whatever Daisy had been holding slipped from her hands and hit the floor.
It looked like it had been ceramic, but after the fall, it was impossible to tell what it had once been.
She crouched instinctively, reaching to pick up the pieces.
Vanessa caught her by the arm and stopped her.
"What is that?"
"A toy?" she said dismissively.
"If it broke, it broke. Mommy will buy you another one."
Then she turned to me with a tight, false smile.
"Daisy is Ethan's daughter."