Chapter 6 - PAIGE STOPPED PROTECTING HIM
Paige called me after Ivan’s company suspended payment on her apartment.
Her voice was controlled until she mentioned Gemma.
“I have sixty days to take over the lease or leave. The school says tuition for the next term is unpaid.”
“You accepted benefits you knew came from his company.”
“Ivan told me they were part of his compensation.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
“Then ask his audit committee.”
She went silent.
I did not enjoy hearing fear in her voice. Gemma was four. She had not created the affair, the financial arrangement, or the decision inside the bus.
“I’m not trying to make your daughter homeless,” I said. “But I am not responsible for maintaining an apartment Ivan used company money to rent.”
“I know.”
“Why did he order a DNA test?”
Paige exhaled slowly.
“Because Gemma may be his.”
The coffee-shop conversation, the school form, the tuition, and the hospital suddenly aligned.
Still, alignment was not verification.
“May be?”
“Ivan and I spent one night together when he came to Ohio five years ago.”
“Three months after Sawyer was born.”
“Yes.”
“He told me it was a business trip.”
“I believed your marriage was over.”
“Did he say that?”
“He said you were living like strangers.”
“We had a newborn.”
Paige did not defend herself.
“I found out I was pregnant after I moved overseas. I married someone else before Gemma was born. My husband believed she was his.”
“Did he know about Ivan?”
“No.”
“Then why come back now?”
“My marriage ended last year. Gemma needed medical records, and there were questions about family history. I contacted Ivan.”
“What medical questions?”
“Nothing life-threatening. She has a mild heart rhythm issue. Her cardiologist asked about biological relatives.”
That detail could be verified through lawful medical channels if paternity became relevant. It was not proof by itself.
“Did Ivan ask for a test?”
“Immediately.”
“Did you receive the result?”
“He told me the first one was positive.”
“Did you see it?”
“No.”
A private test based on collected samples could be informative, but a court would require reliable identification and chain of custody before establishing legal paternity.
Ivan knew that. He had canceled the witnessed appointment anyway.
“Why?”
“He said he needed time to protect the company and prepare you.”
“He prepared a school place and apartment. He did not prepare me.”
Paige lowered her voice.
“He wasn’t planning to leave you for me.”
“Then what was he doing?”
“He wanted Gemma.”
Not Paige and Gemma.
Gemma.
“He said he had already missed four years and would not lose another day,” Paige continued. “He wanted her near Sawyer. He wanted them to become close before anyone knew.”
“He put them in the same school without telling either child they might be related.”
“I told him it was too fast.”
“You still accepted it.”
“Yes.”
It was the first answer Paige gave without softening her responsibility.
She agreed to provide her messages with Ivan and participate in a legally witnessed DNA test.
In return, she asked that I stop allowing reporters to describe Gemma as the child Ivan chose “over his real son.”
“I haven’t spoken to reporters.”
“Someone has.”
“Then we both need to protect the children from adults who want a simpler villain.”
Paige sent the messages that evening.
Ivan had not written romantically to her.
There were no plans for shared vacations or a new life together.
His messages focused almost entirely on Gemma.
Send me her school reports.
What foods does she refuse to eat?
Does she know how to swim?
Can she ride a bicycle?
He was collecting four years of details as though information could replace presence.
One message was dated the night before the bus trip.
If the test is right, tomorrow will be the first time I attend something for both of them.
Paige replied:
Claire still doesn’t know.
Ivan wrote:
After tomorrow, she will understand why this arrangement works.
He had planned to watch Sawyer and Gemma visit the educational farm together.
Instead, he followed the bus after leaving his meeting early.
At the accident, he did not see an unfamiliar child crying in the fifth row.
He saw the daughter he believed he had already failed for four years.
That explained his attention.
It did not excuse the direction he ran.
Near midnight, Paige forwarded one final message.
May you like
It had been sent by Ivan from the hospital entrance while Sawyer was in surgery.
Do not mention the test. If Claire learns Gemma is mine now, she will use the crash to keep both children from me.
