Chương 7
“She kept everything from every year.”
“Not like this.”
Nathan reached into the box and removed a manila folder.
He pushed it across the table.
Claire did not touch it.
“What’s in there?”
“Your birth certificate.”
“I have my birth certificate.”
“You have the amended one.”
The room became very quiet.
Claire sat.
Nathan opened the folder.
Inside was a photocopy of a certificate from the county vital records office.
Claire recognized her mother’s full name.
Evelyn Ruth Mercer.
The father’s line was blank.
Claire looked at Nathan.
“Our father isn’t listed.”
“Keep reading.”
The child’s name was Marianne Claire Vale.
Claire stopped breathing.
“That’s not me.”
“I know what it says.”
“That is not me.”
Nathan reached for the paper.
She pulled it away.
The date of birth was Claire’s.
The hospital was the same hospital where Evelyn had always said Claire was born.
The certificate had been issued five days after that date.
“This proves nothing.”
“No.”
“It could belong to another baby.”
“Yes.”
“Born the same day.”
“Yes.”
“At the same hospital.”
Nathan’s eyes stayed on hers.
Claire pushed back from the table.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not saying anything.”
“You’re doing it with your face.”
“What face would you like me to have?”
“I’d like you to have the face of somebody telling me this is obviously a mistake.”
“I tried that face for three hours.”
She stood and walked into his kitchen.
There were two dirty glasses beside the sink and a permission slip held to the refrigerator with a magnet shaped like a taco.
Claire gripped the countertop.
“Why would Mom have this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would Marianne be with her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why is Marianne’s name on a baptism record for Lucy?”
“I don’t know.”
Nathan followed her but stopped at the doorway.
“I called St. Gabriel’s this afternoon.”
Claire turned.
“You what?”
“Before I called Daniel.”
“Who did you talk to?”
“Nobody.”
“The office was open until four.”
“I know.”
“So what happened?”
“I hung up.”
“Why?”
“Because I found something else.”
He returned to the dining room and took a small spiral notebook from the box.
Claire followed more slowly.
The notebook was Evelyn’s.
Claire recognized the handwriting before Nathan opened it.
Her mother had written shopping lists, phone numbers, medication schedules, and brief reminders across the pages.
Nathan flipped toward the middle.
Several pages had been torn out.
On the first remaining page, Evelyn had written a date from six years earlier.
The date was May 13.
The day before Lucy was born.
Beneath it were three lines.
M called again.
She knows Claire is at St. Vincent’s.
If the baby is a girl, we may not have a choice.
Claire touched the page.
“What choice?”
Nathan shook his head.
“The next four pages are gone.”
“Who tore them out?”
“I don’t know.”
She flipped forward.
Most of the remaining notes were ordinary.
Prescription pickup.
Call insurance.
Nathan birthday.
A plumber’s number.
Then, nine days after Lucy’s birth, another entry appeared.
It consisted of one sentence.
Marianne agreed to the certificate, but Daniel’s name will have to be added later.
Claire stared at it.
“Daniel didn’t exist in our lives.”
“I know.”
“He didn’t meet me for more than a year.”
“I know.”
“She wrote his name.”
Nathan nodded.
Claire’s chair scraped backward.
“This is fake.”
“Her handwriting?”
“The whole thing.”
“Claire—”
“Someone made this.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She heard herself becoming louder and hated Nathan for staying calm.
Then his expression shifted toward the front window.
Headlights had swept across the blinds.
“Are you expecting someone?”
“No.”
A car door closed outside.
Claire’s phone began ringing.
Margaret.
At the same moment, somebody knocked on Nathan’s front door.
Not loudly.
Three measured knocks.
Nathan looked through the narrow window beside the door and went rigid.
“Who is it?”
He did not answer.
“Nathan.”
He turned toward her.
“It’s the woman from the storage facility.”
“What woman?”
“The manager who gave me Mom’s box.”
The knocking came again.
Claire’s phone continued ringing.
Nathan stepped away from the window.
“She called me an hour ago and said she made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“She said the box wasn’t supposed to leave the unit.”
“Why is she here?”
“I didn’t give her my address.”
Claire answered Margaret’s call.
Before she could speak, Margaret said, “Claire, I found the name that was covered in the register.”
Claire looked at the front door.
Outside, the woman knocked a third time.
Margaret’s voice shook.
“The sponsor wasn’t Marianne.”
Claire pressed the phone harder to her ear.
“Then who was it?”
“It was Evelyn Mercer.”
For a second Claire thought she had misheard Margaret.
She turned away from the door, pressing one finger into her other ear as though Nathan’s silent house were suddenly too loud.
“My mother was the sponsor?”
“That’s what the register says.”
“You told me you recognized Marianne’s handwriting.”
“I did.”
“So Marianne filled out the entry and Evelyn signed as sponsor?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
“The original paperwork is missing.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“What paperwork?”
“The baptismal information sheet families complete before the sacrament.”
“Missing from where?”
“From the parish archive.”
Nathan had moved back to the window.
The woman outside knocked again, harder this time.
Margaret continued, “The register entry was altered in at least two different inks.”
“Can you tell when?”
“No.”
“Can you tell what it originally said about the father?”
“Not without damaging the page.”
Claire looked toward Evelyn’s notebook on the table.
“Don’t damage anything.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Photograph every page that mentions Lucy.”
“I already did.”
“Send them to me.”
“Claire, there’s something else.”
Nathan motioned urgently for her attention.
The woman outside had moved away from the porch.
A car engine started.
Claire crossed to the window in time to see a dark sedan reverse from the curb.
May you like
Nathan pulled out his phone and photographed the license plate through the glass.
“What?” Claire said into her phone.
