Chương 13
“It’s not about who your father is.”
“Fantastic.”
“It’s about why Frank was looking.”
Daniel opened his eyes.
Peter stepped closer.
Richard glanced at Mara.
Claire understood.
“Mara, go sit in the car.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“I’m part of the family.”
“That doesn’t mean you need every adult detail.”
“It keeps meaning that after I find them anyway.”
Claire hated how good the argument was.
Daniel touched Mara’s shoulder.
“Give us five minutes.”
She looked up at him.
“Are you leaving again?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation mattered more than an easy promise would have.
“I’ll be right here when you come back.”
Mara accepted it.
She walked to Claire’s car and climbed inside.
Claire gave her the keys so she could turn on the heat.
When the doors shut, Richard spoke.
“Frank called me in February.”
Peter frowned.
“He was diagnosed in March.”
“I know.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether Evelyn had ever told me Michael was Daniel’s father.”
Daniel’s head lifted.
“What did you say?”
“I said no.”
“Then?”
“He asked whether she had ever named anyone else.”
Claire watched Richard carefully.
“And had she?”
Richard looked at Daniel.
“Not by name.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“What does that mean?”
“It means when she told me there was a chance you were mine, she said there were other possibilities.”
Peter stared at him.
“Plural?”
Richard nodded.
Daniel stepped backward.
“No.”
“I’m telling you what she said.”
“No.”
“She was scared.”
“Stop making excuses for her.”
“I’m not.”
“You just did.”
“I said she was scared, not that she was right.”
That stopped Daniel.
Richard continued.
“She was pregnant, Frank had proposed, and she didn’t know what to do.”
“Frank proposed before he knew?”
“I don’t know what Frank knew then.”
“Did he know about you?”
“Eventually.”
“Michael?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel paced to the edge of the porch and back.
“So Dad spent his last year trying to figure out which man was my father.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
“That’s what you just described.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Richard looked toward Claire’s car, where Mara’s silhouette was visible through the windshield.
“Frank wasn’t trying to find your father.”
Peter said, “Then why the test?”
Richard’s mouth tightened.
“Because he was trying to prove something to himself.”
“What?”
“That Evelyn had lied about something else.”
Claire felt Peter shift beside her.
Daniel stared at Richard.
“What else?”
Richard looked down.
“When Frank called me in February, he already knew he wasn’t your biological father.”
Daniel’s voice became very quiet.
“How?”
“He’d done the test months earlier.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Richard rubbed the side of his face.
“He didn’t test because he suspected you.”
Claire understood one second before Daniel did.
She saw it happen in his expression.
Daniel said, “Who did he suspect?”
Richard looked at Claire.
That was enough.
“No,” Claire said.
Peter whispered, “Jesus.”
Daniel did not blink.
Richard said, “Frank thought Denise might not be his daughter either.”
The porch seemed to shrink around them.
Claire thought of Denise saying they all looked disgusting tonight.
She thought of the cruelty in her voice when she mentioned Mara.
She thought of the old argument behind the closed door and Evelyn saying, You promised you’d leave Michael alone.
Daniel sat again.
“Did he test her?”
“I don’t know.”
Peter pulled out his phone.
“I’m calling Denise.”
Claire caught his wrist.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“Because if Frank left Daniel a letter, he may have left something for her.”
Peter looked at his phone.
Then at Daniel.
Daniel said, “We go back.”
Richard stepped away from the railing.
“I’m staying here.”
Daniel looked at him.
“No, you’re not.”
“I absolutely am.”
“If Mom comes over and says you’re lying, I need you there.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“I don’t care what Evelyn says about me anymore.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then come prove it.”
Richard stared at him for several seconds.
“You sound like Frank when you do that.”
Daniel’s face folded in a way Claire had never seen before.
Not anger.
Not grief exactly.
Something wounded by comfort.
Richard saw it and looked immediately ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Don’t be.”
Claire’s phone rang.
Everyone looked at her.
The screen showed Evelyn.
Claire answered without speaking.
Evelyn’s voice came fast.
“Is Daniel with you?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Claire looked at Richard.
“At Richard’s.”
Silence.
Then Evelyn said, “Get him out of there.”
Daniel heard her.
He held out his hand for the phone.
Claire gave it to him.
“Mom.”
Evelyn said something Claire could not hear.
Daniel’s face emptied.
“When did you find out?”
Another burst of words.
Daniel interrupted.
“No, answer that.”
He listened.
Richard watched him without moving.
Daniel’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Then he said, “We’re coming to you.”
Evelyn spoke again.
“No.”
Daniel’s voice remained almost calm.
“You’ve had enough time to prepare.”
He ended the call.
Claire took the phone from him.
“What did she say?”
Daniel looked at Richard.
“She said Richard is telling the truth.”
Peter exhaled.
Daniel continued.
“And she said there’s something Frank never knew.”
Nobody moved.
From inside Claire’s car came the faint, cheerful opening music of a game Mara had started on her phone.
Daniel looked toward the sound.
Then he said, “She knows who my father is.”
Daniel was the first one into Claire’s car.
He did not slam the door, which frightened Claire more than if he had.
Richard stood on the sidewalk with his hands in his coat pockets while Peter unlocked his own car.
“You’re coming,” Daniel said through the open window.
Richard shook his head.
Daniel looked at him for a long moment.
“Then when she says your name, I won’t know whether to believe her.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“What?”
“If she says it was you, or Michael, or somebody dead, or the mailman, I need one person in that room who remembers what actually happened.”
“I told you I couldn’t—”
“I know.”
May you like
Daniel’s voice cracked on the last word.
Richard looked away.
