Chapter 4 - The Question Behind the QuestionMarcus sat alone in the nursery that night.
The room looked ridiculous without Nia and Noah.
Tiny folded onesies filled the dresser. A stuffed elephant sat beneath the window. Above the crib, wooden letters spelled NOAH.
Marcus had installed them slightly crooked.
Nia had noticed immediately.
“They’re perfect,” she had told him.
Now he stared at those letters and wondered how quickly a life could stop feeling real.
His phone lay on the carpet.
Nia had not answered his last message.
Denise stood in the doorway.
“You should eat.”
Marcus did not look at her.
“How did you know she thought someone was stealing?”
Denise’s expression remained calm.
“Nia has been acting strange for months.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I assumed.”
Marcus finally looked up.
“You assumed exactly what she was investigating?”
Denise stepped inside.
“Marcus, you’re exhausted.”
“So is everybody, apparently.”
“Don’t take your anger at yourself out on me.”
He laughed once.
“That’s convenient.”
Denise stiffened.
“I have spent months trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From being humiliated.”
Marcus stood.
“You told me those screenshots came from an unknown number.”
“They did.”
“Nia says they were on the company tablet.”
“I don’t know where an anonymous sender obtained them.”
“But you knew she was investigating money.”
Denise folded her arms.
“Because she started asking questions about invoices that were none of her business.”
Marcus stared at her.
“She did bookkeeping.”
“She entered invoices. She was not an auditor.”
“What invoices?”
Denise hesitated.
There it was again.
A pause he would not have noticed yesterday.
“Old vendor payments.”
“To who?”
“I don’t remember every vendor.”
“Then how did you know what she was looking at?”
Denise’s patience cracked.
“Because she was snooping through records behind my back while pregnant and meeting some man without telling you.”
“Adrian Lewis.”
Denise’s eyes flickered.
Marcus froze.
He had not told her the name.
Neither had Nia, as far as he knew.
“You know him.”
Denise looked toward the crib.
“I may have heard the name.”
“From where?”
“The company.”
“He doesn’t work for us.”
“I don’t know, Marcus.”
“You just said his name like you knew exactly who he was.”
“I didn’t say his name. You did.”
“But you reacted.”
Denise exhaled.
“This is getting absurd.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“No, what’s absurd is that my wife is sitting in her sister’s apartment with my newborn son because I let you convince me anonymous screenshots were enough to doubt her.”
“I did not convince you.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I listened.”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice rose.
“You kept feeding it.”
Denise’s face hardened.
“I told you to pay attention to what was happening in front of you.”
“What was happening?”
“She was hiding things.”
“That part is true.”
“Exactly.”
“But hiding something doesn’t mean cheating.”
“You said that yourself when you saw her get into another man’s car.”
Marcus turned away.
He remembered that evening.
Nia had been seven months pregnant.
He had driven past the coffee shop near Walker Restoration after a job-site meeting and noticed her standing beside a silver sedan.
A tall Black man in a gray suit held the passenger door open.
Nia had looked nervous.
When Marcus asked later, she said, “Company stuff.”
He had pushed.
She had said, “I’ll explain when I can.”
That answer had hurt.
Then Denise received the screenshots.
Then Marcus found Nia’s phone face down more often.
Then she changed the passcode on the company tablet.
At least, Denise told him she had.
Marcus looked at his mother.
“Did Nia change the tablet password?”
Denise’s expression did not move.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she tell you?”
“No.”
Marcus picked up his phone.
He opened the group chat used by the company office.
He searched tablet password.
A message appeared from six months earlier.
DENISE: Changed tablet code because of software update. New code is 4418. Don’t lose it again, Marcus.
Marcus stared at the screen.
His stomach sank.
He turned it toward her.
Denise read the message.
Silence.
“You told me Nia changed it.”
“I must have remembered wrong.”
Marcus laughed.
This time there was no humor at all.
“You remember wrong a lot today.”
“Marcus.”
“No.”
He stepped back.
“You need to leave.”
Denise stared at him.
“What?”
“My house.”
“This is also where my grandson lives.”
“My son isn’t here.”
“Because Nia took him.”
Marcus’s head snapped around.
“She didn’t take him.”
“She chose to leave.”
“After I accused her of carrying somebody else’s baby.”
Denise’s voice softened.
“You had legitimate concerns.”
“Did I?”
He looked at the screenshots again.
“I don’t know anymore.”
Denise picked up her purse.
“If you push away the one person trying to protect you, don’t blame me later.”
Marcus looked toward the empty bassinet beside the crib.
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid I already did.”
Denise walked out.
The front door closed hard.
Marcus waited.
Then he called the paternity lab.
After confirming the appointment, he sat down again.
His eyes landed on the closet.
Something blue was visible beneath a stack of unopened diaper boxes.
Marcus frowned.
He pulled the boxes aside.
A paper folder.
Inside were three copies of the same paternity-testing brochure Denise had carried to the hospital.
One had handwritten notes.
Legal chain of custody. Fast turnaround. Do before certificate if possible.
Marcus recognized the handwriting.
His mother’s.
At the bottom was a date.
Four months earlier.
Four months.
Marcus stared at it.
Then he noticed another note beneath the date.
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Only five words.
Before Nia finds the rest.
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