Naomi Said the Pregnancy Was Not the Reason She Stayed Gone
Chapter 03 - Naomi Said the Pregnancy Was Not the Reason She Stayed Gone
Adrian did not go to Northwestern that night.
He wanted to.
He did not.
Julie took Lily.
Adrian went home to the apartment he used when he wanted less staff around him.
Then he called Leonard Beck.
The old lawyer answered on the third ring.
“Adrian.”
“Did Naomi Ellis tell you she was pregnant?”
Silence.
No denial.
That was enough.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
“Did you tell me?”
Leonard’s voice became careful.
“I prepared a memorandum.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“No.”
Adrian stood by the window.
Chicago below.
His hand around nothing.
“Why?”
“Because she would not confirm paternity.”
“Did I ask you to decide whether I deserved the information?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Leonard exhaled.
“Your father was dying. The leak investigation was active. Naomi refused the family-claim protocol. She would not agree to security review. You had instructed me to handle whatever she wanted.”
Adrian almost threw the phone.
Instead:
“She wanted to tell me she was pregnant.”
“She also wanted direct contact after you had directed communication through counsel.”
“Yes.”
Leonard went quiet.
Then:
“I made a judgment.”
The phrase lawyers use when they need a respectable noun for choice.
“What judgment?”
“That the claim was unverified and disclosure would destabilize you during a succession period.”
Adrian laughed once.
No humor.
“So you protected me from knowing I might have a child.”
“I believed I was protecting the business and giving Naomi a lawful path.”
“Did she ask for money?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten exposure?”
“No.”
“Did she ask for anything?”
Leonard paused.
“She asked me to tell you.”
That answer ended the call emotionally even before Adrian hung up.
Then he asked one last thing.
“Did my father know?”
Leonard went silent again.
“Yes.”
Adrian’s father, Carlo Moretti, died four months after Naomi left.
Pancreatic cancer.
Ordinary.
Fast.
No conspiracy.
He had known.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“You should ask his records.”
The answer sounded terrible because dead men leave paperwork instead of explanations.
Adrian ended the call.
Then did something he had not done five years earlier.
He did not send an assistant to search.
He emailed Julie.
One sentence:
I will not come to the hospital unless Naomi says yes. Please tell her I know Leonard kept the pregnancy from me and that I am available if she wants to speak.
Julie replied two hours later.
She says not tonight.
Adrian stared.
Then wrote:
Understood.
He slept badly.
At six thirteen the next morning:
Julie:
She says you may come at nine. Alone. Lily will be with me.
Adrian arrived at eight fifty-seven.
No security inside.
One officer remained across the street because his threat profile existed whether he liked it or not.
Adrian told him not to follow into hospital.
The room was cardiac step-down, not ICU.
Naomi sat upright in bed.
No oxygen.
IV in one arm.
Hospital gown.
Hair shorter.
Still dark.
Still the same mouth that tightened when she was trying not to show fear.
Adrian stopped at the doorway.
Six years collapsed.
Naomi looked at him.
“Hi.”
He almost laughed from the normality.
“Hi.”
Then:
“Can I come in?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
He entered.
Stayed near the chair.
Did not touch her.
She noticed.
Then:
“Julie told me about the plane.”
“Yes.”
“Lily liked you.”
He swallowed.
“I liked her.”
Naomi looked out the window.
“That makes this harder.”
“Probably.”
Then Adrian said:
“I know you tried to tell me.”
Her eyes returned.
“Do you?”
“Leonard admitted it.”
“What did he say?”
“That he made a judgment.”
Naomi smiled bitterly.
“Of course.”
Then:
“Did your father know?”
“Yes.”
Her face changed.
Not surprise.
She had known.
“How?”
“Leonard told me later.”
“When?”
“After Carlo died.”
“Why did he tell you?”
“Because I threatened to sue him.”
Adrian almost smiled.
That sounded like Naomi.
Then:
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because my lawyer said I had a weak damages theory and a strong reason to stop spending my pregnancy thinking about Moretti men.”
Then:
“Why did you stay gone?”
Naomi looked at him.
“Pregnancy was not the reason.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Adrian waited.
She said:
“I left before I knew.”
“Yes.”
“I stayed gone because every contact with your family confirmed the same thing.”
“What?”
“That nobody asked what I wanted until after deciding what was safe for me.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
Then:
“Did I ever have a chance?”
Naomi’s expression changed.
“This is not about whether you could have won me back.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He nodded.
“Then ask a different question.”
Adrian thought.
“What did you need from me then?”
That softened her face by one degree.
“An answer to the email.”
He looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yes.”
No comfort.
Then:
“And I needed you to believe me when I said the surveillance made me feel trapped.”
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me through Julie? Through someone else?”
Naomi’s face hardened.
“I did not owe you increasingly creative attempts to reach you after you told your lawyer to handle me.”
That ended the question.
Then silence.
Hospital sounds.
A cart in hallway.
A nurse laughing softly with somebody two rooms away.
Adrian said:
“Is Lily mine?”
Naomi looked at him.
“Biologically, I believe so.”
“Believe?”
“You were the only person I was with. But I never had a legal test.”
“Why not?”
“Because paternity is not a private emotional fact once the Moretti name touches it.”
He understood.
Money.
Security.
Inheritance.
Press.
Then:
“Would you agree to a test now?”
Naomi took time.
“For Lily’s medical history, yes.”
Not:
For you.
Then:
“Legal parentage?”
“Later.”
Adrian’s chest tightened.
“I’m her father if the test says—”
Naomi raised one hand.
“No.”
He stopped.
She continued:
“You may be her biological father. Legal parentage is a process. Relationship is another process. Do not collapse all three because you are impatient.”
He looked at her.
“Okay.”
She seemed surprised.
Then:
“You changed?”
“I don’t know.”
Honest.
Then Naomi asked:
“Are you still running the private clubs?”
Adrian went still.
No one had asked that directly in years.
“Some.”
“Illegal?”
He took time.
“Yes.”
Her face closed.
The other reason.
Moretti was not only a controlling ex-boyfriend whose lawyer intercepted a pregnancy.
He still had one foot in the world Naomi had refused to raise a child around.
Then:
“Does Lily know?”
“Know what?”
“That the man she met on the plane runs illegal gambling.”
“No.”
“Good.”
Adrian nodded.
Then Naomi said:
“That is the third problem.”
Not Leonard.
Not surveillance.
Not pride.
May you like
His current life.
And for the first time since seeing Lily, Adrian understood paternity might be the easiest thing to prove.
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