Chương 5
On the third night, Ethan called.
Alexander had asked permission by text first.
Rachel almost said no.
Then she remembered Ethan’s arms around her waist.
She answered.
“Hi.”
For several seconds, nothing came through.
Then Ethan said, “Hi.”
His voice was much smaller than it had been on the yacht.
Rachel sat on Denise’s back steps.
Crickets sounded in the yard.
“You okay?”
“Dad says I’m not supposed to ask you stuff.”
“That seems unlikely to stop you.”
“No.”
She smiled.
“What do you want to ask?”
“Do you remember my dinosaur?”
Rachel closed her eyes.
A green stuffed dinosaur.
One eye missing.
A washing machine.
She saw herself reaching into soapy water.
“You put him in the washing machine.”
Ethan inhaled sharply.
Rachel’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You screamed for forty minutes because you thought I drowned him.”
“His name was Mr. Bite.”
Rachel began crying silently.
“I remember.”
“You fixed his eye.”
“I did?”
“Dad couldn’t.”
“That sounds right.”
Ethan laughed.
It was the first sound that made her want the DNA result and fear it equally.
“Rachel?”
“Yes?”
“If you’re my mom, do I have to call you Mom?”
She opened her eyes.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“You can call me whatever makes you comfortable.”
“Okay.”
A pause.
“Can I still call you?”
“Yes.”
“Even if the test says no?”
Rachel looked into Denise’s dark backyard.
“Yes.”
The result came the next morning.
Probability of maternity exceeded 99.99 percent.
Rachel read the page twice.
Then a third time.
She was Claire Mercer.
Legally, biologically, historically.
But the name did not fit inside her yet.
She called Alexander.
He answered before the first ring had finished.
“You saw it?”
“Yes.”
Neither spoke.
Finally Alexander said, “I don’t know what to say.”
“Neither do I.”
“Ethan wants to see you.”
“I want to see him.”
Alexander exhaled.
“And me?”
Rachel stared at the report.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s fair.”
“No. Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Making everything I say fair because you’re afraid to disagree with a dead woman.”
Silence.
Then, unexpectedly, Alexander laughed.
Once.
It sounded terrible.
Rachel laughed too.
For a few seconds they were two people behaving inappropriately because nothing appropriate existed.
Then Alexander said, “The court order for exhumation is being discussed with counsel.”
Rachel stopped laughing.
“You agreed?”
“I made calls.”
“Victoria knows?”
“No.”
“Don’t tell her.”
Alexander hesitated.
“Why?”
Rachel touched the scar on her wrist.
“I think I remember her.”
The silence changed.
“From before?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel.”
“She grabbed me.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where?”
“A marina, maybe.”
“What else?”
“Rain.”
Alexander’s breathing became audible.
“And she said I made everything harder.”
“Claire—”
“Don’t.”
“Sorry.”
Rachel looked down at the DNA report.
“Was Victoria there the night I disappeared?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
“How do you know?”
“She was at a charity dinner in Atlanta.”
“Did you see her?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t know.”
“I saw photographs.”
“Photographs prove she was somewhere for the length of a photograph.”
Alexander did not answer.
Rachel heard something else in his silence.
“What?”
“There was a period that night.”
“How long?”
“About three hours.”
“Where were you?”
“At home with Ethan.”
“And me?”
“You said you were meeting Victoria.”
Rachel’s fingers went numb.
“Why?”
“You two had been fighting.”
“About what?”
Another pause.
“Money.”
Rachel almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“Not ours.”
“Whose?”
“Your mother’s.”
Their mother, Evelyn Bennett, had died six months before Claire disappeared. She had left the sisters a modest house, investments, and a controlling interest in a family trust established by their grandfather. Not billionaire money. Not even close.
But enough to hurt each other over.
Victoria had wanted to sell several inherited properties.
Claire had refused.
According to Alexander, the argument had become ugly.
“You thought I left to meet her?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“You called me at nine fourteen.”
Rachel’s pulse jumped.
“What did I say?”
“You said you were coming home.”
“Anything else?”
“You sounded upset.”
“Did I say why?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“You never came.”
The body identified as Claire had been found nineteen days later.
Rachel sat very still.
“Alexander.”
“Yes?”
“Who identified my necklace?”
“What?”
“The body. You said there was a personal item.”
Silence.
“Alexander.”
“Victoria.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
The locket around her neck suddenly felt heavy.
“But the locket was on me.”
“Yes.”
“So what did she identify?”
“I don’t know.”
The exhumation became a legal and public mess.
The cemetery required authorization. The county medical examiner’s office reopened the old file. Lawyers argued over jurisdiction because the remains had been recovered in one county while Claire had been declared dead in another. Reporters camped outside the courthouse.
Victoria hired counsel.
She also released a statement.
Rachel read it while eating cereal at Denise’s kitchen counter.
“My family is navigating an unimaginably painful situation involving a vulnerable woman whose identity is still being investigated—”
Rachel stopped.
“Vulnerable woman.”
Denise looked up from feeding Kevin.
“That’s rich-person language for person I hope nobody believes.”
Rachel kept reading.
Victoria’s statement expressed compassion for Ethan, requested privacy, and warned against “reckless speculation.”
It did not once refer to Rachel as her sister.
Rachel put the phone down.
“That bothers you.”
“No.”
Denise raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.”
“You want her to claim you?”
“I want her to be unable to decide whether I exist.”
Denise scraped cat food into a bowl.
“That sounds healthier.”
Rachel threw a napkin at her.
Three days later, Rachel met Ethan properly.
Not on the yacht.
Not in Alexander’s mansion.
She chose a public botanical garden because she did not want either of them trapped inside a house full of Claire’s history.
Ethan arrived carrying Mr. Bite.
The dinosaur was smaller than Rachel remembered.
Its replacement eye was crooked.
She stared at it.
“I did a terrible job.”
Ethan grinned.
“You said perfection was boring.”
“That sounds pretentious.”
“You said that too.”
Alexander walked several paces behind him.
May you like
Rachel looked at him.
He had learned not to approach first.
