Adrian answered them.
No, he could not prove paternity from her pregnancy alone.
Yes, Miles admitted sleeping with her during the relevant time.
Yes, Celeste had drafted the confidentiality agreement before Adrian knew Lena existed.
No, Adrian had not told Miles he was coming to the clinic.
Lena finally leaned back.
LENA: “I want to talk to him.”
ADRIAN: “I can arrange that.”
LENA: “No family office. No lawyers sitting beside him.”
ADRIAN: “Where?”
Lena looked down at the Marigold logo poking from her broken tote.
LENA: “My diner. After closing.”
Miles Vale arrived at Marigold at eleven-ten that night.
Lena had chosen booth six deliberately.
The same booth.
Miles stopped when he saw her.
He looked smaller than she remembered.
Not physically.
Just stripped of mystery.
MILES: “Lena.”
LENA: “Sit.”
He did.
Adrian remained at the counter twenty feet away, near enough to intervene if asked and far enough that Lena could forget him.
Miles folded his hands.
MILES: “I’m sorry.”
LENA: “For which part?”
He looked down.
LENA: “For being engaged? For giving Celeste my message? Or for letting me think you disappeared because I wasn’t worth answering?”
MILES: “All of it.”
LENA: “That’s convenient.”
MILES: “I panicked.”
LENA: “I had forty-two dollars this morning.”
Miles looked up.
LENA: “I was lying on a clinic table trying to make the hardest decision of my life while your aunt was buying my dead mother’s debt so she could make that decision for me.”
His face drained.
MILES: “I didn’t know she’d do that.”
LENA: “You gave her the weapon.”
He had no answer.
Lena reached into her tote and placed her phone on the table.
Her original text to him glowed on the screen.
LENA: “Did I send this to you?”
MILES: “Yes.”
LENA: “Did we sleep together that night?”
MILES: “Yes.”
LENA: “Did you tell Adrian the pregnancy could be yours?”
MILES: “Yes.”
LENA: “Then start behaving like a grown man before those babies ever learn your name.”
Miles wiped both palms against his trousers.
MILES: “What do you want?”
Lena’s eyes narrowed.
LENA: “Don’t ask that like you’re waiting for a price.”
He winced.
Good.
She wanted him to.
LENA: “Tomorrow, you tell your fiancée yourself. You tell your family yourself. You put in writing that you won’t challenge my medical decisions, my residence, or my custody because your family has money.”
