Chương 8
“My friend Maya’s parents fought and then they got divorced.”
“Sometimes people fight and stay together.”
“Sometimes they don’t.”
“That’s true.”
Sophie looked down at her noodles.
“If you get divorced, do I have to leave my school?”
“No.”
The speed of Rachel’s answer startled her.
She realized she had already begun calculating leases, commutes, and tuition in some hidden corner of her mind.
Sophie asked, “Would Lily stay with Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Would I still see her?”
Rachel looked at her daughter.
Until that moment, she had been thinking of Lily as part of the problem around Sophie rather than as a child Sophie had lived with for half a year.
“Would you want to?”
Sophie shrugged.
“She steals my stuff.”
“That is true.”
“She put a marker in my shoe.”
“I remember.”
“She said it was a surprise.”
Rachel smiled despite herself.
“It was technically a surprise.”
Sophie’s mouth twitched.
“She’s annoying.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want her to be sad.”
Rachel looked at the little girl across from her and felt anger give way briefly to something more complicated.
Margaret had hit Sophie after Lily fell.
Daniel had hidden years of ugly history.
Rachel’s father might have lied to everyone.
None of that changed the fact that Lily was three and would wake tomorrow wanting cereal from the blue bowl.
“She has adults who will take care of her.”
“Even Margaret?”
“Daniel.”
Sophie nodded.
That answer seemed enough.
After dinner, Rachel found an old T-shirt for Sophie to sleep in.
It reached nearly to her knees.
Sophie stood in front of the bathroom mirror and examined her cheek.
The redness had faded, but the skin remained slightly darker near the jaw.
Rachel watched from the doorway.
“Does it hurt?”
“Only if I touch it.”
“Then don’t touch it.”
Sophie touched it again immediately.
Rachel sighed.
“Excellent listening.”
Sophie lowered her hand.
“Will it be gone tomorrow?”
“Probably.”
“Good.”
She brushed her teeth.
Foam gathered at the corner of her mouth.
Rachel handed her a towel.
Sophie wiped it away and said, “I don’t want kids at school to know.”
“They won’t unless you tell them.”
“What if somebody sees?”
“You can say you bumped your cheek if you want.”
Sophie frowned at her reflection.
“That would be lying.”
Rachel leaned against the doorframe.
“Yes.”
“Am I allowed?”
Rachel considered the question.
“You’re allowed to say you don’t want to talk about it.”
Sophie nodded slowly.
“I like that better.”
“So do I.”
When Sophie was in bed, Rachel sat beside her until her breathing softened.
The rabbit was tucked beneath her chin.
One repaired ear lay across her shoulder.
Rachel waited another ten minutes after Sophie’s eyes closed.
Then she went into the living room and opened her laptop.
She searched her father’s name first.
Nothing useful appeared beyond an old obituary, a professional license listing, and a cached announcement from an insurance industry luncheon.
She added Margaret’s full name.
Then Claire’s.
Then the address of the former lake house, which Daniel texted after Rachel asked.
Property records led to a parcel number.
The parcel number led to old tax assessments.
The owner at the time of the fire had indeed been Claire’s father, Harold Bennett.
Rachel searched his name.
An obituary appeared.
Beloved husband, father, grandfather.
Nothing about financial ruin.
Nothing about a disputed property.
Nothing about fire.
Then Rachel found a county court index.
Harold Bennett had filed a civil complaint three months before his death.
The defendants were an insurance company, Margaret Hale, and Thomas Mercer.
Rachel’s father.
Her hands went cold.
The case had been dismissed after Harold died.
Rachel clicked through the docket entries.
Most documents were not available online.
One entry was.
A scanned motion filed by Harold’s attorney.
Rachel opened it.
The first page was dense and procedural.
The second mentioned disputed personal property.
The third mentioned an alleged undisclosed financial relationship.
Rachel stopped scrolling.
There, in black type beneath the case number, was a sentence she read three times.
Plaintiff alleges that Defendant Margaret Hale transferred funds to Defendant Thomas Mercer prior to the loss and that Mercer subsequently participated in adjustment of the insurance claim despite a material conflict of interest.
Rachel leaned back from the screen.
The apartment was silent except for the air conditioner.
Her father had not simply known Margaret.
He had taken her money.
And then he had handled the claim.
Rachel read the sentence again until the words stopped looking like English and became shapes arranged to accuse a dead man.
She scrolled farther.
The motion did not say what the payment had been for.
It said Harold Bennett’s attorneys had requested bank records, employment records, internal claim notes, and correspondence between Margaret Hale and Thomas Mercer.
It said the defendants had objected to parts of that discovery.
It said Thomas had denied any improper relationship.
Rachel clicked the next available docket entry.
The document would not open.
She tried another.
Nothing.
Another.
Nothing.
The case had left behind just enough to disturb her and not enough to explain itself.
Her first impulse was to call Daniel.
Her second was not to.
She sat at the small kitchen table with her fingers resting on the keyboard and tried to separate what she knew from what she feared.
Her father had received money from Margaret before the fire.
He had participated in the insurance claim.
Harold Bennett had considered that a conflict.
Claire had believed Margaret started the fire.
Daniel had known Rachel’s father’s name before their second date and had kept that knowledge to himself for years.
Those were facts, or close enough to facts that pretending otherwise would be cowardice.
Everything beyond them remained allegation.
Rachel opened a new browser tab and searched the county clerk’s office procedures for old civil case records.
There was a request form.
Some documents required an in-person visit.
May you like
Some could be ordered digitally.
She filled out a request for the full case file and entered her credit card information.
