The Boy At Table Seven
Chapter 01 - The Boy At Table Seven
The first thing Adrian Mercer noticed was the sound of a chair scraping across marble.
He had been sitting beneath the chandeliers of the Halston Hotel restaurant, listening to Vivian Cross explain why their engagement announcement should happen before dessert. Candlelight trembled in a red glass beside her. Waiters moved quietly between white tablecloths. Every person in the room seemed trained not to disturb wealth.
Then a little boy in a blue sweater appeared at the end of the aisle.
He could not have been older than six. Blond hair fell across his forehead. His cheeks were wet with tears. He looked directly at Adrian as if every other face in the restaurant had disappeared.
“Dad?”
The word was soft, but it broke the room open.
Adrian froze.
Vivian’s hand stopped above her wineglass.
The boy ran forward, rounded the table, and threw both arms around Adrian’s neck. Adrian caught him by instinct. The child clung with the desperate strength of someone who had been searching longer than his small body could explain.
“I knew you weren’t dead,” the boy whispered.
Adrian’s heart struck hard against his ribs.
“I’m sorry,” he said carefully. “I think you have the wrong man.”
The child pulled back just enough to study him. His blue-gray eyes were terrified but certain.
“No. Mom has your picture.”
A woman in a beige trench coat rushed into the restaurant from the main corridor. She stopped when she saw Adrian holding the boy.
Her name rose from a locked part of his memory before he could stop it.
“Rachel?”
Rachel Bennett’s face drained of color.
Across the table, Vivian stood so quickly her chair nearly fell.
“Who is this?” she demanded.
The little boy tightened his arms around Adrian.
Rachel crossed the room and placed one protective hand on her son’s back. Her eyes never left Adrian’s face.
“His name is Oliver,” she said.
Adrian swallowed.
May you like
Rachel’s voice broke on the next words.
“And he is your son.”
