Chương 6
Miriam looked at him.
“Not because she is wealthy and genetically related to her.”
Rachel exhaled.
Miriam raised a finger.
“That is not the same as saying there is no legal problem here.”
Rachel stopped breathing again.
“You concealed material family history during an adoption proceeding,” Miriam said. “How significant that becomes depends on the documents, the jurisdictional facts, and exactly what was asked and answered.”
Daniel glanced at Rachel.
Miriam continued.
“I am not accusing you of a crime. I’m saying do not make assumptions.”
“What about Evelyn?” Rachel asked. “She intended me to raise Lily.”
“Then written evidence of that matters.”
Rachel placed copies of the letters on the desk.
Miriam read quietly.
After a while, she said, “This helps tell the human story.”
“Not the legal one?”
“It may matter there too. I’m not going to overstate it.”
Rachel liked her less for about ten seconds and then trusted her more.
Daniel asked, “Should we talk to Victoria?”
Miriam considered.
“Probably. But not because she has demanded it. And not with Lily present.”
Rachel looked out the window.
“Victoria will want proof.”
“So would you.”
That was true.
Miriam tapped the fertility paperwork.
“If she wants genetic confirmation, you can decide whether to provide it voluntarily. But first I’d like to understand what documentation exists from the clinic.”
Rachel’s phone buzzed.
The school.
She answered immediately.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Carter, this is Andrea from the front office. Lily is fine.”
Rachel’s stomach dropped anyway.
“Okay.”
“There’s a woman here asking to leave something for her.”
Rachel stood.
“Who?”
“She says her name is Victoria Hale.”
Daniel was already watching her.
Rachel said, “Do not let her see Lily.”
“She hasn’t asked to. She brought a package.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“I’m coming.”
Victoria was waiting in the lobby when they arrived.
She stood beside the security desk wearing a gray coat and no visible makeup. Without the museum, the emerald gown, or the diamond earrings, she looked older.
There was a small paper bag on the desk.
Rachel walked straight toward her.
“I told you not to come here.”
Victoria looked at Daniel.
“He told me not to contact Lily or the school.”
“This is the school.”
“I came to the front office. I did not ask to see her.”
“That is contacting the school.”
Victoria considered that.
“Yes.”
The concession took some of the force out of Rachel’s anger.
“What’s in the bag?”
“A book.”
Rachel stared.
“You came across Manhattan to give a six-year-old a book.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“I was nearby.”
Daniel looked toward the windows.
“No, you weren’t.”
Victoria almost smiled.
“No.”
Rachel opened the bag.
Inside was a children’s book about New York museums.
On the title page Victoria had written:
For Lily. I am sorry I frightened you.
Nothing else.
No Grandma.
No claim.
No plea.
Rachel closed the book.
“You still shouldn’t have come.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Probably not as well as you would like.”
That sounded enough like Evelyn that Rachel had to look away.
Daniel said, “We spoke to a lawyer.”
Victoria’s face sharpened.
“Good.”
“You have one?”
“Several.”
“Of course.”
“Yes.”
Daniel put his hands in his coat pockets.
“I want to be very clear. Lily is not entering some private dispute between you and Rachel.”
“I agree.”
Rachel looked at Victoria.
“You agree very quickly.”
Victoria met her eyes.
“I spent most of last night imagining what I would do if someone kept my granddaughter from me for six years.”
Rachel waited.
“And?”
“I made a list.”
Daniel blinked.
Victoria continued.
“It was a very long list.”
Despite herself, Rachel almost laughed.
“Then I read it this morning and realized most of it was written by a furious woman who had not slept.”
She looked toward the school hallway.
“I do not want the first thing I do as Lily’s grandmother to be something Evelyn would have expected me to do.”
Rachel’s chest tightened.
“How do you know what Evelyn expected?”
Victoria’s eyes moved to her.
“Because apparently my daughter left instructions about me.”
Silence.
Rachel wondered how she knew.
Then she remembered the locket.
There had been more than a photograph inside.
Victoria reached into her handbag.
Daniel stepped forward.
She stopped.
“It’s paper.”
He nodded.
Victoria withdrew a folded strip no larger than a receipt.
“I had the locket examined this morning. The photograph was mounted over another piece of paper.”
Rachel took it.
Evelyn’s handwriting.
If R. ever lets you meet her, behave yourself.
Rachel covered her mouth.
Daniel looked over her shoulder.
Victoria said, “My daughter anticipated me accurately.”
The school bell rang somewhere beyond the lobby.
Children’s voices rose through the corridor.
Victoria looked toward the sound but did not move.
Rachel folded the note.
“Why auction the locket?”
Victoria’s face tightened.
“I didn’t know the photograph was inside.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Victoria looked down at the book.
“After Evelyn died, I kept everything.”
Rachel waited.
“Clothes she hadn’t worn in years. Receipts. Half-used perfume. A broken kettle. At some point preservation stopped feeling like love and started feeling like a storage problem.”
Daniel said nothing.
“I donated some things to the museum foundation. The locket was supposed to be sold for the cancer fund.”
“And now?”
Victoria looked at Rachel.
“Now I would like it to belong to Lily someday.”
Rachel’s first instinct was no.
She could feel the word forming.
Then she stopped.
Evelyn had worn it.
Lily had opened it.
The object did not belong to Rachel’s fear.
“Someday,” Rachel said.
Victoria nodded.
“Someday.”
They arranged a meeting for Saturday morning.
Neutral territory.
Miriam’s office.
No Lily.
Victoria brought an attorney anyway.
Rachel disliked him immediately.
His name was Peter Sloan, and he had the polished manner of a man who turned every sentence into something billable.
Miriam disliked him too.
Rachel could tell because Miriam became extremely polite.
Victoria sat between them, looking irritated by the existence of both lawyers.
May you like
Peter began.
“My client’s first priority is establishing biological—”
