Chương 7
Rebecca looked at him.
“You have a daughter.”
The words caught him off guard.
“You know what it’s like when your child decides they would rather carry something alone than admit they need help.”
Claire looked away.
Graham noticed.
He hated that he noticed.
Because he knew exactly what Rebecca meant.
“Emily wasn’t like me,” Rebecca continued.
“No?”
“She wanted to believe people were better than they were.”
Graham looked at the table.
“That can be dangerous.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca folded the photograph and returned it to her purse.
“But so can believing everyone is worse than they are.”
The sentence irritated him because it sounded too much like something Eleanor would have said.
He missed his wife in strange moments.
Not birthdays.
Not holidays.
Not anniversaries.
Sometimes it was a sentence from a stranger in a diner.
Sometimes it was seeing a woman tuck a child’s blanket around their shoulders.
Sometimes it was realizing he had spent years arguing with the only person who had ever been brave enough to tell him the truth.
“What do you want from me?” Graham asked.
Rebecca looked toward the window.
“I want Lily safe.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
“You want me to investigate?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Rebecca looked directly at him.
“I want you not to give her to anyone until you know why Emily chose your name.”
Graham felt Claire watching him.
The request should have been impossible.
It should have sounded ridiculous.
A man who had never raised a child was suddenly being asked to protect one from a danger he could not see.
But the strangest part was that he did not immediately reject it.
That frightened him.
After they left the diner, Claire walked beside him through the parking lot.
Neither spoke until they reached the truck.
“You believe her,” Claire said.
Graham unlocked the door.
“I believe she believes what she’s saying.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Claire waited.
He looked at her.
“You’re going to tell me I’m making a mistake.”
“I’m going to tell you that you’re doing something familiar.”
“What?”
“Taking responsibility for something because it’s easier than dealing with the things that actually hurt.”
He stared at her.
“That’s unfair.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
She nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
The calm answer bothered him.
“You don’t have to agree with me just because you think I’m angry.”
“I don’t.”
“Then say what you think.”
Claire looked toward the truck.
“I think you spent years being needed because being needed meant nobody could leave.”
Graham felt the words hit somewhere deeper than he wanted.
“That’s not true.”
“Maybe.”
She opened the passenger door.
“But you don’t know that.”
The drive home was quiet.
Not hostile.
Just full of things neither of them knew how to say.
When they arrived, a county vehicle was parked near the house.
Graham immediately noticed.
A woman he did not recognize stood beside it holding a folder.
His first instinct was suspicion.
His second was annoyance that his first instinct was always suspicion.
The woman stepped forward.
“Mr. Vale?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Dana Pierce.”
“From where?”
“County placement services.”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“I know.”
Her eyes moved briefly toward the house.
“I was sent because there was an update regarding the placement process.”
Graham felt his shoulders tighten.
“An update?”
“Yes.”
Claire came around the truck.
Dana looked at her.
“Family member?”
“My daughter.”
Dana nodded.
“I need to speak with Mr. Vale privately.”
“No,” Graham said.
The answer surprised everyone.
Dana blinked.
“No?”
“If it concerns the baby, she stays.”
Dana glanced at Claire.
“This is a confidential matter.”
“She’s involved.”
“Mr. Vale.”
Graham stepped closer.
“She has been here since the beginning.”
Dana studied him.
Then she looked down at her folder.
“Fine.”
They entered the house.
Lily was asleep in the living room.
Dana stopped when she saw the crib beside the couch.
“You purchased supplies.”
“I borrowed some.”
“From who?”
“My daughter.”
Dana wrote something down.
Graham noticed.
“What are you writing?”
“That you have support.”
“That sounds like a good thing.”
“It is.”
“Then why does it feel like evidence?”
Dana looked up.
“Because you’re used to being evaluated.”
The observation bothered him because it was accurate.
She opened the folder.
“There is something you need to know.”
Graham waited.
“Someone filed a request to remove Lily from your temporary care.”
His face changed.
“Who?”
Dana hesitated.
“We don’t have confirmation.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning the request came through a legal representative.”
“For who?”
“We’re still verifying.”
Graham laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the situation had become too strange to react to normally.
“So someone who won’t identify themselves wants a baby removed from my house.”
“That is what we’re looking into.”
“And you’re telling me this casually?”
“I’m telling you because I think you need to understand that this may become more complicated.”
Claire stepped closer.
“What happens now?”
Dana looked at Lily.
“Now we follow procedure.”
Graham’s jaw tightened.
“I hate that phrase.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Dana looked at him.
“I have spent fifteen years watching people hate the process when the process protects them and hate the process when it limits them.”
He had no answer.
Dana closed the folder.
“The child is still under county supervision.”
Graham nodded.
“But?”
“But until we know who is making these claims and why, I recommend you keep records of everything.”
“Records?”
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
She pointed gently toward the kitchen.
“Appointments.”
“Messages.”
“Visitors.”
“Anything unusual.”
Graham looked at Claire.
Then at Lily.
The baby moved slightly in her sleep.
For the first time, the old farmhouse did not feel empty.
It felt exposed.
After Dana left, Graham stood in the doorway watching her vehicle disappear down the road.
Claire came beside him.
“You realize this means you can’t just pretend this is temporary anymore.”
He looked at her.
“I never said I was pretending.”
“No.”
May you like
She looked back at the road.
“You didn’t say anything.”
