Chương 4
“You came because someone told you what happened this afternoon.”
Rebecca’s gaze shifted toward Evan.
That was enough.
Evan moved first, not toward her but toward the table, reaching for his phone.
Rebecca said, “Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Why?”
“Because if you call the police right now, you may make it harder to find your brother.”
The silence after that sentence had weight.
Evan’s face emptied.
“You know where Caleb is?”
“No.”
“You know what happened to him?”
“I know what he was doing.”
Evan crossed the kitchen in two steps.
Mara caught his forearm before he reached Rebecca.
“Don’t.”
He pulled away from her but stopped himself.
“My brother has been missing since yesterday.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Rebecca shut her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them, she looked older.
“Because Caleb called me yesterday morning.”
Mara stared at her.
“You know him too.”
“I knew him professionally.”
“What profession?”
“Not mine.”
Rebecca looked at the laptop.
“Did he give you something?”
Mara said nothing.
Rebecca’s mouth tightened.
“That means yes.”
Evan laughed once, without humor.
“This is fantastic.”
“Evan.”
“No, really, this is great.”
He pointed at Rebecca.
“You know Caleb, she has hundreds of surveillance photographs of herself, a child recognizes her as her mother, and apparently I’m the only idiot in Maryland who didn’t get the memo.”
Rebecca turned sharply to Mara.
“Photographs?”
Mara regretted the information before Evan finished breathing.
Rebecca looked frightened now.
Not performatively frightened.
Not lawyer frightened.
Her eyes went to the windows.
“Close the blinds.”
“No,” Mara said.
“Mara, close them.”
“Tell me why.”
Rebecca crossed to the nearest window herself and pulled the blind down.
Evan blocked her before she reached the second.
“You don’t get to rearrange the furniture until you explain my brother.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Caleb worked for a private medical research contractor called Halcyon Bridge.”
“Doing what?”
“Data compliance.”
Evan blinked.
“He told us he worked in clinical records.”
“That was close enough.”
“Close enough to what?”
Rebecca glanced at Mara.
“Identity reconstruction.”
Mara almost laughed because the phrase sounded designed to mean nothing.
“What does that mean?”
“It means they handled records for patients whose identities had to be protected.”
“Witness protection?”
“No.”
“Domestic violence?”
“Sometimes.”
“Then what?”
Rebecca rubbed the bridge of her nose.
“Children.”
The word changed the room.
Mara’s fingers went cold inside her sweatshirt pocket around Caleb’s drive.
Rebecca continued carefully.
“About eight years ago, Halcyon Bridge contracted with several private clinics and family-service organizations to clean and separate medical records in cases involving adoption disputes, trafficking investigations, donor anonymity, custody litigation, things where unauthorized access could expose a child.”
“That sounds legal,” Mara said.
“Some of it was.”
“And the rest?”
“I don’t know how much Caleb proved.”
Evan leaned against the counter as though standing had become unexpectedly complicated.
“What did he think happened?”
Rebecca looked at Mara.
“He thought records were being changed, not protected.”
Mara heard the refrigerator humming again.
“Changed how?”
“Birth histories.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“Parentage.”
Mara’s first reaction was irritation.
It was so ordinary and so inappropriate that she almost welcomed it.
“This is absurd.”
“Yes.”
“I have never had a child.”
Rebecca said nothing.
Mara’s irritation disappeared.
“Say something.”
Rebecca looked toward the hallway.
“Mara, I need you to understand that knowing a fact and proving a fact are different things.”
“That’s lawyer garbage.”
“It’s also true.”
“Did I have a child?”
Evan looked between them.
Rebecca’s face tightened.
“I don’t know.”
Mara stepped closer.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It’s the only answer I can give you.”
“You just told me someone altered parentage records.”
“I told you what Caleb suspected.”
“And Lucy called me Mommy.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she might.”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Yes.”
Mara slapped her.
The sound was shockingly small.
Rebecca’s head turned.
Evan looked away.
Mara stared at her own hand.
For half a second she wanted to apologize.
Then Rebecca touched her cheek and Mara did not.
“How long?”
Rebecca’s voice came quieter.
“Four months.”
“You’ve known for four months?”
“I’ve known Caleb was investigating your name for four months.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I had nothing I could responsibly tell you.”
“You represented me.”
“I still do.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Mara—”
“You’re fired.”
Rebecca’s eyes closed briefly.
“Fine.”
The speed of her acceptance hurt more than an argument would have.
Evan’s phone began ringing.
All three of them looked at it.
The screen showed NOAH.
Evan answered immediately.
“Hey, buddy.”
His voice changed so completely that Mara almost did not recognize it.
A child spoke rapidly on the other end.
Evan turned away.
“No, I haven’t found him yet.”
A pause.
“I know he promised.”
Another pause.
“Noah, listen to me, okay?”
Mara watched Evan press his free hand against his forehead.
“I need you to stay with Grandma.”
The boy said something else.
Evan’s face tightened.
“What message?”
He straightened.
“When did you get it?”
Rebecca looked at Mara.
Mara had already pulled out her phone.
Evan switched the call to speaker.
Noah’s voice filled the kitchen, thin and nervous.
“It came after school.”
“What did it say?”
“It was Dad’s number.”
“Read it exactly.”
There was rustling.
Then Noah said, “He said, ‘Tell Uncle Evan the woman in the green coat is not the woman in the photographs.’”
Nobody moved.
Mara looked down at herself.
The green coat was hanging by the front door.
Evan’s eyes found hers.
Noah asked, “Who’s the woman in the green coat?”
Evan opened his mouth.
Mara’s phone vibrated again.
The unknown number had sent a photograph.
It showed the three of them standing in Mara’s kitchen.
The picture had been taken through the uncovered window behind Evan.
Mara raised her eyes.
Across the dark glass, beyond the reflection of the kitchen lights, someone was standing in her backyard.
For one second, Mara could not tell whether the figure was facing the house or facing away.
May you like
Then it moved.
Evan lunged for the window, but Rebecca caught the back of his shirt.
