Conrad watched.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked.
"Medically."
"They said it's her lungs.
The mold in this building.
She couldn't afford to move." Lily's voice was steady, but her chin was shaking.
"The medicine costs four hundred dollars.
She stopped taking it three months ago."
Conrad looked at Elena.
"You stopped taking the medicine?"
Elena didn't answer.
"She sells things," Lily continued.
"Whatever we don't need.
She told me we didn't need the bike anymore.
She said I was too old for it."
"Are you?" Conrad asked.
Lily shook her head.
"I learned to ride on it when I was four.
Mom held the back of the seat and ran behind me until I could balance.
She fell once.
Scraped her knee.
She laughed about it."
Conrad sat down on the floor.
Not on a chair.
On the floor, near the couch, close to where Lily sat.
"Can I see the bike?" he asked.
Lily looked at her mother.
Elena gave a small nod.
Lily went to the door and pulled the bike inside.
The front wheel was crooked from being stuffed in the trunk.
The pink paint was chipped in a dozen places.
The basket was dented.
Conrad turned the bike slowly.
He found the carved spot on the frame — underneath, near the pedal, where it was hard to see unless you were looking.
C + E.
2017.
He ran his thumb over it.
"I made this with a kitchen knjfe," he said.
"You were asleep.
I was so nervous I almost cut my finger."
Elena was watching him.
"Why did you leave, Conrad?
The real reason.
Not what Margot told you."
Conrad looked up.
"She said you were in love with someone else.
She said she saw you with him.
She showed me photos."
"What photos?"
"You and a man.
At a café.
Holding hands."
Elena's eyes widened.
"That was my brother.
Marco.
He was visiting from Italy.
He held my hand because I was crying — because you had just told me you were going back to Margot."
Conrad said nothing.
"She showed you those photos and told you I was unfaithful," Elena continued.
"And you believed her."
"I was wrong."
"You were a coward."
"Yes."
"You left me alone with a newborn.
In that building.
With nothing."
"Yes."
"And now you're sitting on my floor."
"Yes."
Elena stared at him for a long moment.
"Get up," she said.
He stood.
"Sit in that chair."
He sat.
"Now tell me exactly what Margot said.
Every word you can remember."
Conrad spoke for ten minutes.
He told her about the photos.
About the phone call Margot made the night before he left — how she cried, how she said Elena had confessed, how she said Lily wasn't his.
He told her about the new phone number, the new city, the marriage that followed — loveless, transactional, built on a foundation of lies he never checked.
Elena listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she said:
"She told you Lily wasn't yours?"
"Yes."
"And you never asked for a test?"
"Margot said there was no point.
She said you'd already admitted it."
"I never admitted anything.
I never spoke to Margot.
Not once.
Not ever."
Conrad put his head in his hands.
"I know that now."
His phone buzzed again.
He pulled it out.
Another text from Margot: "I know where you are.
Don't make me come there."
He showed Elena.
"She's coming here?" Elena's voice went tight.
"It looks like it."
"Then she'll see Lily."
"Yes."
Elena pulled Lily closer.
"No.
I won't let that woman near my daughter."
"She's my wife," Conrad said.
Then stopped.
"No.
She was my wife.
As of this morning, I'm calling my lawyer."
"You've said things before."
"I've never had proof before.
I have the texts.
I have the photos she showed me — which I can prove are your brother.
I have seven years of silence that she engineered."
Elena looked at him.
"You're serious."
"I'm serious."
"She will destroy you.
She has money.
Connections.
She'll take everything."
"She already took everything.
She took you.
She took Lily.
She took seven years I can never get back."
Lily tugged her mother's sleeve.
"Mom?"
"What, baby?"
"Is he my dad?"
Elena looked at Conrad.
Then at Lily.
"Yes," she said quietly.
"He is."
Lily looked at Conrad for a long moment.
"Then why didn't you come?"
Conrad's eyes were wet.
"Because I was lied to.
And I was too afraid to check if the lie was true."
"That's not a good reason."
"No.
It isn't."
Lily thought about it.
"Are you going to stay?"
"If your mother lets me."
Lily looked at Elena.
Elena didn't answer.
She was looking at the door.
A knock came.
Three sharp knocks.
Then Margot's voice — clear, controlled, carrying through the thin wood like it owned the building.
"Conrad.
Open the door."
Conrad stood.
"Don't," Elena said.
"I have to."
"She'll make it worse."
"She can't make it worse than it already is."
He walked to the door and opened it.
Margot stood in the hallway.
Tailored coat.
Heels that clicked on the cracked linoleum.
Her hair was perfect.
Her expression was not.
She looked past Conrad and saw Elena on the couch.
Saw Lily next to her.
Saw the pink bike leaning against the wall.
Her eyes stopped on the bike.
"Well," she said.
"So you found it."
"Come in, Margot," Conrad said.
She stepped inside.
Her eyes moved over the apartment — the peeling walls, the medicine bottles, the eviction notice — with the precision of someone cataloging evidence.
"This is where she's been living?" she said.
Not to Conrad.
To the room.