“Are we a team or not?” Chloe asked.
“We are,” Miles said, but the words almost caught in his throat. Were they? Really? Their bond was now based on a fiction, a fraud.
An overwhelming sense of emptiness washed over him. All these years, even when he hadn’t known the identity of the children he’d believed he’d fathered, their existence had been something of a comfort. He was leaving something behind. He had a legacy. An anonymous one, but still, it was out there.
But no more.
No legacy.
And he was going to have to break it to Chloe that she hadn’t been reunited with her father after all. He was still out there. And he was very likely a despicable fertility doctor who had violated every ethical standard in the book.
What the hell was he supposed to tell her?
As Charise headed for I-95, Miles and Chloe entered into a period of silence. About ten minutes went by before Chloe broke it.
“So what’s next, Pops?”
It was a peace offering. He turned his head, looked at her, and smiled sadly. Her hand was resting on the leather upholstery, and he placed his on top of it and gave it a squeeze.
Chloe, so annoyed with him earlier, appeared concerned. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“You’re holding something back.”
“No, I told you what Dorian said.”
Half of it.
She gave him a brief, skeptical glare, but then said, “I guess we should carry on, find the others.” To Charise, she said, “Forget the train station.”
Miles said, “Maybe it’s too much for me. For us. Maybe it’s time to go to the police.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like they’d be any help. You know where I’d suggest we go first?”
“Where?” he said wearily.
“I was thinking Fort Wayne.”
“Travis Roben.”
“Right,” she said. “I’ve already started doing some research.” She waved her phone. “When I got back to the car, I entered in the names, one at a time, to see what I could find on them. Roben’s kind of a weird, geeky guy. I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s on Instagram. He’s a graphic novel nut.”
“You mean he’s into them, or he writes them?”
“Both. Well, he’s trying to do one. He posted a few pics. He’s not that great an artist, but his story lines are kind of interesting. The good news is, he’s not dead or missing or anything like that.”
“That’s a plus.”
Miles didn’t have the heart to tell her Dorian and Heather had compiled profiles. Besides, Chloe might have found some new, interesting tidbits.
As if they mattered.
“Okay,” Chloe said, “so this Nina Allman, she lives in Seattle and works at something called Pike’s?”
“Pike Place Market. Top tourist attraction in the city. You can get fresh fish, vegetables, anything. Great restaurants.”
“And Barbara Redmond?”
“Yes?”
“She’s an actress. Did you know that?”
“I did.”
“So I’ve got a half sister who’s done NCIS and The Good Place? Looking at IMDb, they haven’t been big parts. Yogurt seller? Dead body?” She paused. “That’s not a good omen.”
“I hadn’t looked up her acting credits.”
“And this Neaseman guy, he’s not that far from Nina. He’s in Portland. The Oregon one. So what I’m thinking is, you start in Fort Wayne, since that’s closest, and blow this Roben guy’s mind by telling him you’re his dad and that maybe someone wants to kill him, then—”
“Just another day.”
Chloe shrugged, and continued. “And then you head to the coast, since everyone else is along there. Seattle, Portland, L.A. Start in the north and work south. You know I’ve never been west of Albany? Too bad I don’t have a half sibling in San Francisco. I’d love to see San Fran.”
Miles’s heart was pounding. He bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood.
“You’re right,” he said.
“About what?”
“Dorian did tell me something else.”
Chloe blinked. “What?”
“When they did the test, they were comparing your profile to mine.” He paused. His mouth was getting very dry. “Charise, do you have any water?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
Keeping one hand on the wheel, Charise unzipped a small bag on the seat next to her. She pulled out a bottle of Aquafina and extended it, backhand, over the seat. Miles took it, but when he tried to unscrew the cap, he couldn’t make his fingers close around it.
“Here,” Chloe said, taking the bottle, cracking the seal, and returning it. Miles took a long sip and set the bottle into a cup holder between the seats.
“You were saying,” she said.
“They looked at my profile, and...”
Chloe’s face fell. “You’re sicker than you thought. This thing you’ve got, it’s moving faster?”
“No, not that. Something... worse. I think. Depending on how you look at things.”
“Jesus, just tell me,” Chloe said.
“I’m not your father.”
Her face did not move. She was dumbstruck. For several seconds, she had no words. Slowly, she retreated to her side of the car, leaning up against her door.
“I was as stunned as you are,” Miles said. “There’s no DNA match between us. I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s something Dr. Gold did. He falsified the records. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but he—”
Chloe erupted. “If you’re not my father then who the fuck is?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, oh, that’s great.” She put a hand to her forehead and turned away, as if trying to escape him. “This is just absolutely fucking terrific. So he could be anybody. Anybody in the whole goddamn country.” She pointed to a man on the sidewalk, walking back and forth in front of an electronics store, wearing a sandwich board. “Maybe it’s him.”
Miles was betting it was Gold himself, but without proof he did not want to speculate. He said, “Chloe, I feel terrible about this.”
“Oh, you feel terrible? I thought one of the great mysteries of my life had been solved but it turns out it was all bullshit, but you feel terrible?”
Miles had no words.
Chloe shook her head and bit her lip. Her chin trembled. “I can’t believe this... I just can’t...”
She sniffed, and as her eyes began to mist she turned away so Miles couldn’t see her. “All of this was for nothing. I don’t really mean anything to you. You’re not anything to me.”
The words went into Miles like a knife.
“I can’t deal with this.” She leaned forward and said to Charise, “Stop the car.”
“Ms. Swanson, I’m about to get onto the interstate.”
“Stop the car.”
“Chloe, please,” Miles said. “It’s not like that. All I wanted to do was—”
“Stop the fucking car!” she screamed.
Charise hit the blinker and steered the limo over to the side of the road.
“You don’t even know where we are,” Miles said.
Chloe waved her phone. “You of all people should know there’s an app for that.” She pulled on the door handle, undid her seat belt, swung the door wide open, and got out.
“Please, Chloe!” Miles shouted.
But she had slammed the door before he could get her name out. Chloe slammed her hand on the car’s trunk as she walked off in the direction they’d come from.
Charise asked, “Do you want me to go after her?”
Miles had no doubt Charise could catch up with her, pick her up, and bring her back, but he couldn’t see the point.
“Let her go,” he said.