Chapter 2 - THE SMALL SILVER PIN
Saturday afternoon brought half the Caldwell family to the house for Nathan’s mother’s birthday lunch.
Vanessa arrived wearing a cream maternity dress beneath a long gray coat.
Claire nearly walked upstairs when she saw her.
Nathan stopped her.
“Mom invited her.”
Claire gave him a cold look.
“Your mother invited the woman carrying your affair into our family lunch.”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“She’s carrying my child.”
“You keep saying that like it erases everything else.”
Ethan heard every word.
So did Vanessa.
Yet when Vanessa entered the dining room, she behaved as though she had heard nothing.
She hugged Nathan’s mother.
She accepted congratulations.
She declined champagne.
She rubbed her belly whenever someone looked at her.
Ethan watched from across the room.
Then Nathan’s younger niece, Sophie, ran past Vanessa chasing a balloon.
The balloon string caught the bottom of Vanessa’s cardigan.
Vanessa turned too quickly.
Her dress snagged against the carved corner of a chair.
There was a sharp tearing sound.
Vanessa froze.
Ethan saw it.
A small section of fabric pulled away near her left hip.
Beneath it was not bare skin.
It was beige elastic.
Thick elastic.
And fastened through the elastic was a silver safety pin.
Vanessa grabbed the torn section immediately.
But Ethan had already seen enough.
The elastic band curved beneath the dress toward the front of her stomach.
Vanessa looked directly at him.
For the first time since entering their lives, she appeared genuinely frightened.
“Bathroom,” she whispered.
She hurried out.
Ethan followed ten seconds later.
He stopped before reaching the hallway.
Vanessa stood beside the downstairs powder room.
She was not alone.
A woman Ethan recognized as Vanessa’s friend, Melissa, had apparently arrived through the back entrance.
Vanessa lifted her dress slightly.
Ethan could not see everything from his position.
But he saw enough.
Melissa pulled the silver pin loose.
The rounded shape beneath Vanessa’s dress shifted.
Not like a pregnant stomach.
Like an object.
Ethan’s breath caught.
Vanessa whispered furiously.
“I told you the strap was tearing.”
“You should have replaced it.”
“I didn’t have time.”
“What if somebody saw?”
Vanessa answered after a pause.
“The kid might have.”
Ethan stepped backward.
A floorboard creaked.
Vanessa’s head snapped toward the hallway.
Ethan ran.
He reached the stairs just as Vanessa appeared behind him.
“Ethan.”
He stopped.
She walked toward him slowly.
Her cardigan was closed again.
Her stomach looked perfect.
“What did you see?”
Ethan turned.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Vanessa studied his face.
“You’re a smart kid.”
“So people keep telling me.”
Her smile returned.
“You also care about your father.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t confuse something you don’t understand with something dangerous.”
Ethan felt cold.
“What does that mean?”
“It means pregnancy is complicated.”
She stepped closer.
“Medical supports exist.”
“Supports?”
“Belts.”
“Held together with safety pins?”
Her expression hardened.
They stared at each other.
Then Vanessa sighed.
“You really don’t want to make your father’s life harder right now.”
Ethan heard the warning beneath the polite words.
“My father’s life is already hard.”
“Exactly.”
She touched his shoulder.
“So don’t make it worse.”
Ethan pulled away.
Vanessa returned to the dining room.
Ethan went upstairs.
He locked his bedroom door.
Then he opened every photograph he had taken during the previous six weeks.
He compared dates.
Angles.
Clothing.
Stomach size.
By midnight, he had seventeen photographs arranged chronologically on his computer.
Vanessa’s pregnancy had not changed.
Not even a little.
Ethan enlarged the photograph from Nathan’s birthday.
He noticed a faint line beneath Vanessa’s dress.
An elastic strap.
His heart started beating faster.
He opened another.
The line was there too.
Then another.
And another.
At 12:18 a.m., Ethan searched online for maternity support belts.
The images did not match what he had seen.
He changed the search.
Synthetic pregnancy belly.
The first photographs made him sit upright.
Beige straps.
Silicone stomach.
Adjustable bands.
The shape was nearly identical.
Ethan whispered to the empty room.
“Oh my God.”
Then someone knocked on his door.
May you like
“Ethan?”
It was Vanessa.
