Chương 8
“You don’t know her.”
“I used to.”
The root beer arrived. Noah pushed it away before the server finished setting it down.
“Were you together?”
Claire closed her eyes briefly.
Danny said, “Once.”
“What does once mean?”
“It means we made one decision.”
“A bad decision?”
Claire answered. “A decision that hurt people.”
“But it made me.”
The sentence landed with such simple force that all three of them became silent.
Noah looked at Danny again.
“Did you know about me?”
“I knew your mom was pregnant.”
“And?”
“She told me Grant was your biological father.”
“You believed her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Danny could have blamed the forged report. He could have said Grant confirmed it. He could have explained that Claire had asked him to stay away.
Instead, he said, “Because believing her let me avoid making your life more complicated.”
Noah’s lower lip moved slightly.
“You didn’t want me.”
“I didn’t know you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” Danny said. “It isn’t.”
Claire reached toward Noah’s hand. He pulled it into his lap.
A family at the next table sang happy birthday to a little girl wearing a paper crown. Restaurant employees clapped without enthusiasm. A candle sputtered in a dish of ice cream.
Noah watched until the singing ended.
“Dad said people left when things got hard,” he said.
Danny felt Claire look at him.
“He said that about me?”
“He didn’t say your name. He said my biological father didn’t stay.”
“Grant lied about that too.”
Noah’s eyes filled. “Don’t call him a liar.”
Danny’s first instinct was to defend himself. It rose hot and immediate.
He swallowed it.
“He lied about this,” he said. “That doesn’t mean everything he was to you was a lie.”
Noah blinked rapidly.
“Did you hate him?”
“Sometimes.”
“Do you hate him now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Everybody says that.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Noah looked down at the table. “He was scared at the end.”
Claire put one hand over her mouth.
“He asked me if I’d be okay,” Noah continued. “I said yes because he looked scared. I wasn’t.”
Danny wanted to reach across the table. He kept his hands around the glass of water.
“No,” he said. “You weren’t.”
“Are you going to tell people?”
“About the test?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Grandma Margaret will hate Mom.”
Claire said, “Your grandmother is upset with me for many reasons.”
“She’ll say you cheated.”
The blunt word made Claire flinch.
“She may,” Claire said.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Noah studied her face as though searching for a way to separate a mother from an act.
The pizza arrived. No one ate.
After several minutes, Noah asked Danny, “Do you have other kids?”
“No.”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“People keep finding out what I’m like.”
Noah stared at him.
Danny added, “That was a joke.”
“It wasn’t very good.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
A reluctant smile moved at one corner of Noah’s mouth.
Claire unfolded the napkin she had destroyed and smoothed it against the table.
Danny reached into his jacket pocket.
“I have something for you.”
Noah stiffened.
“It’s not a gift.”
Danny placed the cracked coolant flange on the table.
Noah picked it up.
“This broke?”
“Along that seam.”
Noah held it beneath the hanging light. “It looks normal.”
“Most broken things do from one angle.”
Danny heard the sentence after it left him and disliked its neatness.
He added, “Also, plastic is cheap.”
Noah ran his thumb over the fracture.
“Can I keep it?”
“That’s why I brought it.”
Noah put the part carefully in his pocket.
The meeting lasted thirty-eight minutes. Noah ate half a slice of pizza. Claire drank three glasses of iced tea. Danny answered questions about the shop, where he lived, whether he had ever been arrested, and why his left thumb did not bend all the way.
At the end, Noah asked, “Do I have to see you again?”
Claire began to speak.
Danny answered first.
“No.”
Noah’s shoulders loosened.
“But I’d like to see you again,” Danny said. “If you decide you want to.”
“What would we do?”
“I don’t know. Something boring.”
“Like what?”
“Change your mother’s cabin filter. She’s six months overdue.”
Claire looked offended. “You checked that?”
“It’s my job.”
Noah nodded solemnly. “Okay.”
He did not say whether okay meant he would return.
Danny paid the bill while Claire protested. Outside, Noah walked ahead to the Mercedes.
Claire stopped beside Danny.
“You handled that better than I expected.”
“That sounds insulting.”
“It wasn’t meant to.”
“Then you handled it badly.”
For a moment, the old Claire appeared—the woman who would roll her eyes and tell him when he was being impossible. Then the expression vanished.
“He’ll have questions tomorrow,” she said.
“So will I.”
“Are you going to answer my calls?”
“Yes.”
She searched his face, perhaps testing whether he understood the size of the promise.
“Margaret is coming over in the morning,” she said.
“Why?”
“She wants to discuss Grant’s estate.”
“Does the test affect it?”
“Not directly. Grant is listed on Noah’s birth certificate. He was his legal father. His will names Noah specifically.”
“Then why are you worried?”
“Most of Grant’s assets aren’t in the estate. The house is partly owned by a Bellamy family trust. His dealership shares return to the family. Noah’s school tuition, health coverage, and several other expenses were paid through discretionary accounts Margaret controls.”
“She can cut him off.”
“She can.”
“Would she?”
Claire looked toward the car where Noah sat turning the broken flange in his hands.
“She loved her son more than she loves being fair.”
Margaret Bellamy came to Danny’s shop before Claire could tell her anything.
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She arrived Tuesday morning in a black sedan driven by a man who remained behind the wheel. Margaret was sixty-eight, silver-haired, and dressed in the kind of casual clothes that cost more than Danny’s first car.
Danny recognized her from dealership events. She had always remembered employees’ names and never waited in line.
