Chapter 2 - The Serious Baby
That particular Tuesday afternoon, Michael had come home early, unusual for him.
His assistant had cleared his schedule because of a headache that wouldn’t quit.
And instead of going to bed like a normal person, he wandered into the living room in his suit, Tai loosened, jacket still on. Angela was on her knees by the coffee table, wiping down the glass with practiced gentle strokes.
Zoe, now 10 months old, was on the rug surrounded by stuffed animals. A bear with a red bow, a pink bunny, colorful balls scattered like confetti.
She wore a little red dress Angela had picked out that morning, a matching bow clipped in her curls. Michael lowered himself onto the floor without thinking. He rarely did this.
He was always rushing somewhere, always on a call, always half present. But something about the quiet of the afternoon made him stop.
Zoe looked up at him. Her small face scrunched into the most serious, unimpressed expression a 10-month-old could manage.
brows furrowed, lips pressed into a pout, as if she were studying him the way he studied a contract before signing it.
Michael couldn’t help it.
He laughed, a real laugh, the kind that hadn’t come out of him in longer than he wanted to admit.
He covered his mouth with his fist, shoulders shaking. Behind him, Angela froze midwife, staring at the two of them.
In 20 years, she had seen this man close billion-dollar mergers without changing his expression.
But she had never, not once since Elena’s funeral, seen him laugh like that.
“She’s judging you, Mr.Carter,” Angela said softly, a smile spreading across her face.
“She gets that from her mother,” Michael answered, still grinning, wiping the corner of his eye.
For a moment, none of the money, none of the meetings, none of the weight he carried existed.
It was just a father on the floor, a baby crawling toward him with her serious little face, and a woman who had quietly kept this family from falling apart, watching from a few feet away with tears she didn’t let fall.
Zoe reached him. She grabbed two fistfuls of his tie and pulled herself up onto his knee.
That same stubborn frown still on her face as if she hadn’t yet decided whether he deserved her forgiveness for all those missed bedtimes.
Michael pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I know,” he whispered.
“I know I haven’t been here enough.”
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What he didn’t know, what he couldn’t have known was that in exactly 4 days, a phone call was going to come through his office that would threaten to take Angela away from this house forever.
and the reason would break his heart in a way no boardroom ever had.
