The Boy She Tried to Throw Out

Chapter 03 - Twenty-Seven Letters

Eight years earlier, Marissa Lane had been a pianist in the lobby of Julian’s smallest Chicago hotel.

She played six nights a week beneath a chandelier that flickered whenever the kitchen ovens overloaded the building’s old wiring. Julian was not yet chairman then. He was the stubborn son sent to repair an unprofitable property before the board trusted him with anything important.

He heard her play after midnight.

That was how it began.

They ate vending-machine dinners in the manager’s office. They argued about music and business. Julian learned how to change a diaper when Marissa’s sister visited with a baby. Marissa learned that the confident heir carried panic medication in his inside pocket.

They loved each other privately because Julian’s father considered Marissa unsuitable and the board considered every relationship a risk.

When Marissa became pregnant, Julian promised they would tell everyone together.

Two days later, he left for London to prevent a hostile takeover.

Celeste Arden, then a junior communications director, visited Marissa before he returned.

She brought documents.

A settlement offer.

A printed message supposedly from Julian.

He has chosen the company. Do not contact him again.

Marissa refused the money.

She wrote Julian anyway.

Twenty-seven letters over four months. She sent photographs, medical updates, pleas, anger, and one final sentence after Theo was born: He has your eyes, even if he never has your name.

No answer came.

Then a lawyer delivered a signed notice declaring Julian would seek custody if Marissa continued contacting the family.

She disappeared to Milwaukee with her newborn.

Julian, meanwhile, received a different story.

Marissa had accepted money. She had terminated the pregnancy. She had left the country with a musician.

The evidence came through Celeste.

The pain came alone.

Now, in the ballroom, Julian stared at Marissa as though eight years had opened beneath his knees.

“I thought you took the settlement,” he said.

“I thought you threatened to take my baby.”

Theo stopped crying.

He understood only two words.