Chương 7
I felt the ground shift beneath the story again.
“After.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The second day.”
“You spoke to Carol while I was at the hospital.”
“She came there.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“She did.”
“I was there almost the entire day.”
“She came early.”
“What time?”
“Before seven.”
I had arrived at eight fifteen.
I remembered because I stopped at a gas station for coffee and checked the time three times while sitting in the parking lot, terrified I was about to walk into another adoption that would disappear.
“Why did she come?”
Marissa looked like she wanted to leave her own body.
“To make sure I was still going through with it.”
Ethan swore.
I barely heard him.
“Did Carol know I was the prospective adoptive parent before Lily was born?”
Marissa whispered, “Yes.”
The answer entered me without drama.
No gasp.
No shaking.
Just a clean understanding that something I had believed accidental had not been accidental at all.
“How?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Try.”
“She asked who the agency was working with.”
“That would not give her my name.”
“I know.”
“She could not legally just call and ask.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Marissa looked toward Ethan.
“Daniel told her.”
Ethan frowned.
“You said Daniel only figured it out.”
“He did.”
“When?”
“A few days before Lily was born.”
“So he told Carol.”
“I think so.”
“You think.”
“I wasn’t there when they talked.”
I pressed two fingers against my forehead.
For seven years, I had told myself the strange convergence was coincidence.
A failed adoption.
A desperate birth mother.
A last-minute placement.
Daniel’s name surfacing in a hospital room.
My decision to stay.
I had built a life on that sequence.
Now Carol sat drinking coffee as if she had not moved pieces before any of us understood there was a board.
“We’re talking to her,” Ethan said.
“Yes.”
He looked surprised.
“But privately.”
“Fine.”
“And we do not mention Lily within her hearing unless we know she’s alone.”
“Fine.”
Marissa whispered, “I don’t think she’ll talk.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“She will.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“That.”
“What about it?”
“The part where you decide force will make people honest.”
His jaw tightened.
“She has lied to my entire family for seven years.”
“Then she has practice.”
Marissa looked between us.
“She was afraid of Daniel.”
That stopped us both.
Ethan frowned.
“Carol?”
“Yes.”
“Of her own son?”
Marissa nodded.
“Not physically.”
“What does that mean?”
“She said he knew how to make people feel responsible for cleaning up his messes.”
The sentence felt precise enough to have come directly from Carol.
I could hear her saying it.
Ethan rubbed his jaw.
“That sounds like her.”
“Did she say why she was helping him?” I asked.
“She said she wasn’t.”
Marissa’s voice turned bitter.
“She said she was helping everyone else survive him.”
I looked back toward the tent.
Carol was no longer seated.
Her chair was empty.
“Where did she go?”
Ethan turned.
For a moment, none of us moved.
Then I saw a flash of silver-blond hair near the side exit.
“She’s leaving.”
Ethan started forward.
This time I did not stop him.
We cut around the tent instead of through it.
Marissa kicked off her heels after ten steps and carried them in one hand.
Carol reached the gravel path leading toward the parking area.
“Aunt Carol.”
She stopped.
Slowly.
That mattered.
She had heard us.
She had simply been deciding whether to keep walking.
When she turned, her face was composed.
Her eyes moved from Ethan to Marissa, then landed on me.
Something in them changed.
Not surprise.
Resignation.
“Claire.”
“Carol.”
She looked at Marissa again.
“I wondered when this day would come.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You wondered.”
Carol sighed.
“Not here.”
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You don’t get to say that.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
“You knew about Lily.”
Carol’s eyes flicked toward the tent.
“Lower your voice.”
“So that’s a yes.”
“It’s me telling you there is a child twenty yards away.”
The correction stopped him.
Carol looked at me.
“Is she with your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I hated how normal the question sounded.
“How much did you know?” I asked.
Carol’s mouth tightened.
“More than I should have.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
“Then give me one.”
She looked toward the parking lot.
A valet drove past slowly in a golf cart.
Carol waited until he was gone.
“I knew Daniel was seeing Marissa.”
“When?”
“Before she became pregnant.”
Marissa stared at her.
“You knew that early?”
“Yes.”
“You told me you only found out when I started showing.”
Carol’s face hardened.
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because at the time I was trying to decide whether getting involved would make things worse.”
Marissa laughed sharply.
“That worked out.”
Carol accepted it.
“You’re right.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Did you know Daniel was using Claire’s picture?”
“Not immediately.”
“When?”
“A few months later.”
“And you did what?”
“I confronted him.”
“What did he say?”
“That Marissa would leave him if she knew who he really was.”
Marissa’s expression twisted.
“I did leave him.”
“Yes.”
Carol looked at her.
“You did.”
“After you told me.”
“Yes.”
I studied Carol.
“You knew I was trying to adopt.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You told Diane.”
I had.
Ethan’s mother knew.
I had called her after the failed Jacksonville placement because I needed somebody who understood why Ethan was not the person I could call anymore.
Diane must have told Carol.
“Did you connect me to Marissa’s adoption?”
Carol took too long to answer.
Ethan noticed.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
The word landed softly.
That made it worse.
Marissa looked shocked despite everything.
I heard myself ask, “How?”
“Judith was an old friend.”
“Judith Phelan.”
“Yes.”
“She was your friend.”
“She still is.”
“Did she know who I was?”
“Eventually.”
“Before I was matched?”
Carol pressed her lips together.
“Yes.”
I took one step backward.
May you like
That mattered more than I wanted it to.
I could hear my own heartbeat.
