Chương 6
Eleanor did not answer.
“That’s what I thought.”
“I told myself I was trying to keep Charles calm.”
“You were trying to keep your life calm.”
“Yes.”
The simple admission stopped Claire for a moment.
Eleanor looked down.
“Evelyn asked me to leave with her.”
Claire stared.
“She asked me to come to Leah’s apartment. Just for a few days. She said Charles couldn’t control both of us if I walked out too.”
“What did you say?”
“I said she was being dramatic.”
Claire looked away.
Daniel did not move.
Eleanor’s voice had become quieter.
“She told me that was the last time she would ask me to choose her.”
The refrigerator clicked.
A bus groaned outside.
Someone downstairs laughed near the laundromat entrance.
Claire stood with both hands on the counter because suddenly the ordinary noises in the building seemed unbearable.
“What happened next?”
“She left.”
“And then the accident.”
“Yes.”
“Did Charles know she survived?”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
“You think he did.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Eleanor reached into her handbag.
Claire stiffened.
Eleanor took out an envelope.
Old cream paper.
She placed it on the table.
“I found this yesterday.”
Claire did not touch it.
“Where?”
“A locked drawer in Charles’s study.”
“You waited six years after he died to open a drawer?”
“I opened the drawer before. The false bottom was discovered yesterday.”
Daniel looked at Claire.
She looked at Eleanor.
“That sounds convenient.”
“Yes.”
“You understand how convenient that sounds.”
“I do.”
“What’s in it?”
“A letter.”
“From who?”
“Evelyn.”
Claire stopped breathing for a second.
Eleanor pushed the envelope across the table.
“I haven’t opened it.”
Claire stared at her.
“Why?”
“It’s addressed to Charles.”
“That has never stopped anyone in this family before.”
Eleanor winced.
Claire reached for the envelope.
The postmark was August 2003.
Two months after the accident.
The return address was a post-office box in New Hampshire.
Claire’s hands began to shake.
Daniel stood and moved closer.
She opened it carefully.
The handwriting was familiar immediately.
Not because Claire had seen her mother write at twenty. Because Evelyn’s capital E never changed.
Charles,
You got what you wanted. Everyone thinks I am dead.
Ben says we should tell my mother. I wanted to. Then your man came to the hospital in Concord and repeated every word I said to you in the kitchen, including the part where I said I would never let you near my child.
So now I know you found me.
You said if I contact her you will tell police Leah died because I was driving. I was not driving. Leah was.
You said you will have Ben charged for helping me use Leah’s identification at the clinic. You said you will take the baby because I am unstable.
I do not believe all of that anymore.
I believe enough.
Tell my mother I am sorry.
Do not come near us.
Evelyn
Claire read it twice.
Then a third time.
Daniel said, “There’s more on the back.”
She turned it over.
One line.
If Eleanor asks whether I called, tell her yes.
Claire put the letter down.
Eleanor was staring at the table.
“He told me she never called.”
Claire looked at her.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“You lived with him for seventeen more years.”
Eleanor’s face went pale.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“I asked every day for the first month.”
“Then what?”
“I believed my daughter was dead.”
Claire stood.
“So did she.”
Eleanor looked up.
“What?”
“My mother thought you chose him.”
Eleanor’s lips parted.
“She knew you were alive,” Claire said. “She knew where you were. She never came back.”
Eleanor looked as though Claire had struck her.
Claire hated the satisfaction that gave her.
It lasted less than a second.
Then shame arrived.
She turned away.
Daniel picked up the letter.
“We need to verify this.”
Claire looked at him.
“It’s her handwriting.”
“I believe you.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying Charles Harrow is dead, Leah Mercer is dead, Evelyn is dead, and we have a twenty-three-year-old letter that could change legal records and attract every reporter in Massachusetts. We verify everything.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“You’re right.”
Claire rubbed her arms.
“I don’t care about legal records.”
“Yes, you do,” Daniel said.
“No.”
“If your mother lived for twenty-two years under the legal identity of a woman declared missing in the same crash—”
“She didn’t use Leah’s name.”
Daniel stopped.
Claire looked at the letter.
“At least not when I knew her. She was Evelyn Mercer.”
Eleanor said, “Mercer was Benjamin’s name.”
Claire nodded.
Daniel asked, “Was your mother ever legally married to your father?”
“I don’t know.”
Nobody said anything.
Claire laughed weakly.
“That’s becoming a theme.”
The DNA test was Eleanor’s idea.
Claire refused twice.
Then her doctor’s office called four days later because a magazine reporter had contacted the practice asking whether Claire Mercer was related to the Harrow family.
The office had not answered.
They wanted Claire to know.
She hung up and sat at her desk for several minutes, staring at a spreadsheet she had been cleaning for a public-health nonprofit.
Her supervisor, Mia, appeared in the doorway.
“You okay?”
Claire looked at her.
Mia had seen the video.
Everyone had.
“I’m thinking about moving to a country without Wi-Fi.”
“Expensive.”
“Worth it.”
Mia leaned against the frame.
“A reporter called reception.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“We told him nothing.”
“Thank you.”
“And if anybody here gives out your schedule, I’ll fire them myself.”
Claire looked up.
Mia shrugged.
“I’ve wanted an excuse to sound terrifying.”
Claire smiled.
Then her eyes filled.
Mia’s expression softened.
“Oh, hell.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sure.”
“I hate when people say that.”
“I didn’t say it.”
Claire took a tissue.
Mia waited.
After a minute she said, “Your ten o’clock canceled.”
“Because of this?”
“Because their kid has strep.”
Claire laughed.
Mia nodded.
May you like
“See? The universe remains mostly boring.”
That sentence helped more than anything people had said all week.
