28. Erik #2
We reach the penthouse less than an hour after Makari's phone first caught signal.
The place fills quickly. Makari takes over the office with Harper and two operators, while Peter arrives several minutes later carrying the conference-center drives and a list of vehicle plates gathered from nearby road cameras.
He drops the material beside Makari and begins matching vehicles without waiting for instructions.
For several minutes I stand near the office doorway with nothing useful to do. Makari doesn't need me watching him type, and Peter doesn't need me reading over his shoulder. Every person in the room already knows Rowan is the priority.
I go upstairs to look for anything she might have left behind that could help. Another device, a note, a second copy of Jeremy's files, or some indication of what she intended to do before Callie's message interrupted her afternoon.
The bedroom looks exactly as it did when she left yesterday. Her side of the bed is made, one of her books rests on the chair near the window, and nothing about the room suggests an emergency.
I open the nightstand drawer.
A bottle of prenatal vitamins sits on top.
I read the label once, then again because my brain refuses to do anything useful with the word. I pick up the bottle and turn it in my hand before putting it carefully back in the same place.
Beneath it is a folded appointment card with Serena Voronova's name and a date from almost two weeks ago. The edge of a black-and-white photograph shows underneath.
I pull it free.
An ultrasound fills the page.
Three separate sacs are visible, each marked with a letter.
A.
B.
C.
I stare from one to the next long enough that the image blurs, then force myself to focus again.
Rowan is pregnant.
There are three babies.
My children.
My grip changes on the printout, and I loosen my fingers before I crease the edge. I sit on the floor beside the nightstand because my knees have stopped cooperating, keeping the ultrasound in front of me while men downstairs trace the route of the woman carrying those three children.
The questions from the shoreline house come back in the wrong order. Where would I live? Would I keep working at Blackthorne? Did I want children?
Two, maybe three.
She already knew.
I thought Rowan was asking whether I could imagine some theoretical future with her. She was carrying that future while she stood in front of me, trying to decide whether the life around me could hold it without destroying it.
A white laboratory envelope lies beneath the ultrasound. Rowan's name is printed across the front beside Serena's office information. The flap is sealed.
I pick it up and turn it over once, but I don't break the seal. If Rowan chose not to open it, whatever is inside waits until she can make that decision herself.
Footsteps stop outside the bedroom.
Harper stands in the doorway, and her face changes the instant she sees the ultrasound in my hand.
"How long have you known?"
She comes into the room and sits on the chair near the window. "Since the appointment. She needed somebody, Erik."
I glance at the date again. "Almost two weeks."
"Yes."
Harper knowing could hurt if I let it become the important thing. Rowan is missing. Whatever anger I have about the secret belongs to another night.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
Harper leans forward, loosely clasping her hands between her knees.
"She was going to tell you today. She asked for two days because she was angry and needed space, then she woke up this morning and decided she didn't need the second one.
We spent most of the afternoon figuring out how she wanted to say it. "
The yellow legal pad downstairs makes sense now.
I look down at the ultrasound. "She was coming back."
"Yes. She hadn't decided whether she was calling you first or showing up at the penthouse, but she was telling you tonight."
I rub one thumb along the blank white border of the printout. "Was she afraid I wouldn't want them?"
Harper shakes her head immediately. "No. That was never the question."
I look at her, and she doesn't need to explain much more. The argument yesterday comes back with painful clarity, along with every question Rowan asked at the shoreline house.
"She was asking whether my life was safe enough for them."
Harper's expression softens. "Yes."
Every question I treated as an examination of my commitment was about three children growing up behind gates, with protection teams, safe houses, and enemies who knew enough about Rowan to use her mother's car and a trusted professor against her.
Rowan wasn't asking whether I loved her. She already knew I did. She was trying to decide what loving me would cost our children, and I answered by telling her I wouldn't beg her to believe in me.
The memory makes my stomach turn.
Harper rises and looks toward the hallway. "Serena is downstairs. I called her after Rowan disappeared and told her there had been a violent incident. I didn't tell her you knew about the pregnancy."
I pick up the ultrasound and the sealed envelope before standing. "Good."
Serena waits near the office with her medical bag beside the chair. She looks at the printout in my hand, then at Harper, who gives her a slight nod.
"He found it," Harper says.
Serena turns back to me, and I stop several feet away. "Can you discuss Rowan's medical information with me?"
"Under these circumstances, yes. Rowan listed you as her emergency contact and signed authorization allowing disclosure if she was incapacitated or unable to communicate.
" Serena takes her phone from the side pocket of her bag.
"She is missing following a violent incident, so the authorization applies. "
Rowan signed my name to a medical form while refusing to tell me she was pregnant. The contradiction is infuriating enough that I nearly laugh, except there is nothing funny about the reason Serena is using the authorization now.
"How far along is she?"
"Approximately fourteen weeks gestational age. There are three fetuses, each with a separate sac and placenta, and all three were doing well at the last ultrasound."
I catch the tense. "Were."
"That is the latest information I have. I can't tell you anything about their current condition until Rowan is examined."