I told him he did not have to confront anyone immediately.
He ignored me.
“Come to Dad’s office,” he said when she answered.
“Now.”
Amelia must have heard something in his voice because she did not argue.
She arrived twenty-five minutes later.
Caroline arrived twelve minutes after that.
Neither Preston nor I had invited her.
That told me Amelia had called her.
Caroline walked into my office already angry.
“James, what on earth is going on? Preston won’t tell me anything.”
I looked at Amelia.
She was white-faced, one hand resting protectively over her stomach.
Preston stood beside the conference table.
“Tell him,” he said.
Amelia’s eyes filled.
“Preston—”
“Tell me whose baby you’re carrying.”
Caroline stepped between them.
“This is exactly why I told everyone not to do this in anger.”
Preston stared at her.
“You don’t get to manage this.”
Caroline froze.
I had never heard him speak to his mother that way.
Amelia sank into a chair.
“I don’t know for certain,” she whispered.
Preston looked as though she had struck him.
The truth came out in pieces.
Several weeks before Amelia learned she was pregnant, she and Preston had gone through a brief separation they had hidden from both families.
During that separation, Amelia had been with someone else.
She and Preston reconciled shortly afterward.
When the pregnancy was discovered, the dates were close enough that Amelia initially convinced herself Preston was probably the father.
Then she used two early at-home paternity screening services without telling him.
Both indicated that Preston was unlikely to be the biological father.
She panicked.
And she told Caroline.
“Why her?” Preston asked.
Amelia wiped her face.
“Because I thought your mother would know how to tell you without destroying you.”
Preston laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“So she decided not to tell me at all.”
Caroline lifted her chin.
“I decided you deserved one day of happiness before your entire life collapsed.”
“You let me marry her.”
“You loved her.”
“You let Dad give us a house.”
“The house was already intended as your gift.”
I finally spoke.
“No.
It was intended as a gift to a couple I believed was starting a family honestly.”
Caroline turned on me.
“Don’t make this about your money.”
“I’m making it about deception.”
“I was protecting our son.”
Preston slammed his palm against the table.
