Chương 10
“No, you didn’t.”
“I asked you whether there was anything strange about my birth.”
“You asked whether you were premature.”
“And you said no.”
“You weren’t.”
“That’s the problem.”
Mara watched Elaine’s fingers tighten around the steering wheel.
“What exactly did you find?” she asked.
“My long-form birth certificate.”
“How?”
“I needed it for a passport application.”
Mara frowned.
“You’ve had a passport since college.”
“The old one had expired, and there was a problem with the renewal.”
Noah sighed.
“I ordered a certified copy from Maryland.”
“And it had a different birthday?”
“It had a correction attached to the original record.”
“Who requested the correction?”
“Dad.”
Elaine turned toward the phone.
“No.”
“That’s what it says.”
“Richard couldn’t change a birth certificate by himself.”
“He didn’t.”
Noah paused.
“There was a physician’s affidavit.”
“Whose?”
“Dr. Samuel Levin.”
Elaine’s reaction was so immediate that Mara noticed it before the name meant anything.
Her mother’s hand came away from the steering wheel.
“Who is he?” Mara asked.
Elaine stared through the windshield.
“He delivered my first baby.”
The grocery store parking lot moved around them.
A cart attendant pushed a long train of carts toward the entrance.
A woman wrestled a toddler into a car seat.
Someone had left a bag of potting soil beside a silver SUV.
Mara became aware that she had not eaten breakfast.
Her stomach felt hollow and sour.
“Noah,” she said, “did Thomas tell you to meet him?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“His office.”
“He’s retired.”
“Apparently retired people still own buildings.”
“Don’t go inside until we get there.”
Noah laughed once.
“You’re in Virginia.”
“We’re coming.”
“Mara, no.”
“Why not?”
“Because this is already insane enough without turning it into a family field trip.”
“You called a stranger who might know why your birth certificate was altered, and you drove three hours without telling anybody.”
“I told Sophie.”
Mara blinked.
“Sophie?”
“My girlfriend.”
“You broke up with Sophie.”
“We got back together.”
“When?”
“July.”
Elaine looked offended.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Mom, focus.”
For one absurd second, Mara wanted to laugh.
Their family might be disintegrating around a dead infant and an altered birth certificate, but Elaine could still locate a grievance about being excluded from Noah’s dating life.
“Text me Thomas’s address,” Mara said.
“No.”
“Noah.”
“I’m going in.”
“Wait twenty minutes.”
“You are not twenty minutes away.”
“No, but Dad might be.”
Silence.
Mara continued.
“He asked Daniel whether you still lived in Philadelphia, and then he left with the hospital bracelet and the photograph.”
Noah’s voice changed.
“What photograph?”
Mara told him.
When she finished, Noah was quiet.
“Do not go into Thomas’s office,” she said.
“I’m serious.”
“Okay.”
“You mean it?”
“Yes.”
“Send me the address.”
The call ended.
Elaine immediately put the car in reverse.
Mara caught her arm.
“Where are you going?”
“Easton.”
“Mom.”
“You just said Richard may be going there.”
“And Daniel is sitting at my house wondering why his wife vanished in the middle of a marriage crisis.”
Elaine looked at her.
“This is bigger than your marriage.”
The cruelty of it was casual, almost accidental.
Mara released her arm.
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m beginning to understand how this family works.”
Elaine’s expression tightened.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
That was worse.
Mara opened the passenger door.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting out.”
“We need to go.”
“You need to go.”
“Mara.”
“I have a daughter who gets home at three fifteen and a husband who has been lying to me about where he sleeps.”
Elaine stared at her.
“Daniel is having an affair?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said he was lying.”
“That doesn’t automatically mean affair.”
“It usually does.”
Mara almost admired her mother’s confidence in this particular area.
“I’m going home.”
“What about Noah?”
“I’ll call him.”
“What about Richard?”
“He’s spent thirty-nine years deciding what I should know.”
“He can wait an hour.”
Elaine’s mouth compressed.
Then she put the car in park.
“I’ll drive you.”
They said almost nothing on the way to Mara’s house.
At one point Elaine turned on the radio, apparently by accident, and a cheerful advertisement for replacement windows filled the car.
She switched it off so violently Mara nearly laughed again.
Daniel’s car was in the driveway when they arrived.
Richard’s truck was gone.
The oak boards lay on two sawhorses inside the open garage.
Mara touched one as she passed.
Richard had already marked the first cut in pencil.
Daniel stood at the kitchen counter drinking coffee.
He had changed out of the clothes he had traveled in and was wearing jeans and an old Georgetown T-shirt.
His suitcase sat beside the stairs.
Elaine came in behind Mara.
Daniel looked at her, then at Mara.
“This feels promising.”
“Where did Richard go?”
“Good morning, Elaine.”
“Daniel.”
“No idea.”
Mara closed the garage door.
Daniel watched her.
“Did you eat?”
The question irritated her because it was kind.
“No.”
“I made eggs.”
“I don’t want eggs.”
“They’re in the microwave.”
Elaine set her purse on the counter.
“Did Richard say anything about Easton?”
Daniel looked at Mara.
“Easton?”
“Thomas lives there.”
Recognition passed over his face.
“The DNA guy.”
“My biological father.”
Daniel absorbed that.
“Okay.”
Elaine winced at the word.
Mara noticed and stored the reaction away.
“What did Dad say before he left?”
Daniel took a sip of coffee.
“He asked about Noah.”
“We know that.”
“He also asked me whether you’d spoken to anybody named Bell.”
Mara stared at him.
“You said he only asked about Noah.”
“You hung up before I got to the rest.”
“That is not what happened.”
“No, you were busy giving me instructions.”
Elaine shifted impatiently.
“Can we do this later?”
Daniel looked at her.
“With respect, you’re in my kitchen.”
Elaine’s eyebrows rose.
Mara had seen Daniel challenge judges with less caution.
“Mom, give us ten minutes.”
“We don’t have ten minutes.”
“We do.”
Elaine picked up her purse.
“I’ll wait outside.”
“You don’t have to.”
May you like
“I absolutely do.”
She left through the front door.
