Caleb stood.
“Please.”
I looked at Audrey.
“You asked him to bring you?”
“No,” Caleb said. “I did.”
I slid into the booth across from them.
A waitress poured coffee.
Nobody touched it.
Caleb had lost the arrogance from the wedding.
But he was still angry.
“Start with the simplest question.”
“All right.”
“Is June biologically mine?”
“I believe so.”
His jaw tightened.
“Believe?”
“You were the only person I was with.”
“Then she is.”
“Biology can be confirmed properly.”
He stared at me.
“You found out after the divorce.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“No.”
Audrey looked down at the table.
Caleb noticed.
“Why does she know you?”
I took the folded email from my purse.
Audrey went completely still.
I placed it between the coffee cups.
“I met Audrey when I was pregnant.”
Caleb looked at her.
Then at me.
“Where?”
“At Willow Creek Family Services.”
His eyes returned to Audrey.
“The adoption center?”
“It wasn’t technically—” Audrey began.
I slid the paper toward Caleb.
“Read it.”
No one spoke while he did.
The waitress returned carrying creamers, sensed something in the booth, and quietly moved on.
Caleb’s face changed line by line.
When he reached the end, he looked at Audrey.
“What is this?”
Audrey folded her hands.
“It was a different job.”
“That is not what I asked.”
She looked at me.
Then him.
“I was an intake supervisor.”
“You knew Nora?”
“I remembered her when I saw her yesterday.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Audrey closed her eyes.
Caleb looked between us.
“What does that mean?”
“She recognized me before June arrived.”
Audrey’s shoulders dropped.
“When Emily introduced Nora, I thought the name sounded familiar.”
“Thought?”
“I was trying to place it.”
I watched her.
Audrey finally looked at me.
“I knew by the time June ran over.”
There it was.
Not a dramatic confession.
Just a sentence.
Caleb pushed the email away as though it had become hot.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Audrey’s face tightened.
“Tell you what? That eight years ago your ex-wife came through an office where I worked?”
“That you wrote this.”
“I was under pressure from the program director.”
“You wrote that she might make a different decision before she found outside support.”
Audrey glanced around the diner.
“Keep your voice down.”
Caleb laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You knew what I did for a living. You knew who my ex-wife was.”