I know he already knows this, but I play along, anyway, even if telling this monster anything about my baby girl makes me want to claw out my own voice box.
"Yes," I reply, unable to keep all the tightness from my tone. "Her name's Ellie."
"Order for Aurora," the barista calls, and Ambrose must hear her because he clears his throat.
"I can hear you're busy, so I don't want to keep you, but I was hoping you'd be open to doing lunch soon."
I gulp, and Ellie sets her chin on my lap.
"Does this mean…" I trail off, absently stroking Ellie's fur.
There's a hollow-sounding laugh on the other end, and then, "I…Yes. It's good news. The tests came back positive. I can't really believe it. I've been searching for so long, but I never thought…Anyway,you are—" His voice chokes off and he coughs to cover the emotion in his tone. "You're my daughter, Miss Bellerose. It was a ninety-nine point nine percent probability match. There's no doubt."
Even knowing the results are fake, hearing him say the words still hits me like a gut punch.
"Oh my god." The words come out almost unscripted. I don't even have to inject the little waver in my tone. It's there all on its own.
"I know—it's a lot to take in."
"What…what happens now?"
Another hollow laugh. "Well, I'm not entirely sure on that. I need to meet with my lawyers, but that can happen later. For now, I'd just like to see you again. To discuss what next steps should look like. Which is why I was thinking over lunch…" He trails off hopefully, then adds, "If you're open to it."
Ellie makes a little sound of discontent on my lap, and yeah, the feeling is mutual. I try really fucking hard to put myself in the shoes of a girl who's learned she has a parent who wants to seeher, know her, and form a relationship with her. The sting in my eyes comes after only a few seconds.
"I—I'm not sure if I can convince my dog walker to watch Ellie again on short notice." The words scrape out of my chest, coming out strained and a bit watery. I think it sounds perfect.
"Oh no, no. I'll come to you. It's not a problem. I'm only asking for a few hours of your time. And as it happens, I'm at the airport at the moment. I have some business overseas and won't be back until next weekend. I was thinking, perhaps Sunday?"
As if on cue, I hear a staticky voice come through the receiver. It sounds like it's the pilot telling Ambrose they'll be next on the runway and should be arriving in Nice by dinnertime.
"I should go," he says. "Sunday, then?"
"Okay, yeah," I croak with a sniff for effect, and then let out my own little watery laugh of disbelief.
"Fantastic," he says decidedly. "Shall we say around one o'clock? I'll have Linette work out all the details."
"Sounds good."
"Great," he echoes. "In the meantime, it'll be best not to tell anyone about this. It could draw a lot of unwanted attention your way. I'm…well. I'm a wealthy man. The media would have a field day with this. Best keep it to ourselves until we figure out how to proceed."
"Right."
"Right, then. I'll see you soon."
"See you soon."
I hang up the phone, and a shuddering breath leaves me as a tear falls from my lashes and lands on Ellie's nose.
Quickly, I wipe my face and give my head a shake, trying to cast off the mask that's trying to fuse permanently to my skin.
"Order for Aurora," the barista calls again, and I force myself to get up.
I rush to grab my coffee, but the idea of drinking it now makes my stomach churn.
We need to head back. I have to call the guys and tell them it's happening. They did it.Wedid it.
Blowing out a long breath, I hightail it back to the apartment with Ellie, glad of the brisk pace, but when I turn onto our street, the first thing I notice is that the sedan from earlier is gone. But there seems to be a new vehicle that wasn't there before, a few spaces down. It's a black SUV that looks too shiny among all the older model vehicles belonging to the students and blue-collar citizens living in this apartment block. There are two of them, actually.
