Chương 5
“Whether or not I return?”
“I’m not suspending you. I’m giving you the option to stay away while we review what happened.”
“That sounds like suspension.”
Pilar examined the edge of the cracker plate.
Adrian nodded once. “It may feel like one.”
“Would Ms. Vale be staying away?”
“She doesn’t work here.”
“No,” Anna said. “She only gets to decide who does.”
His expression tightened.
Anna looked down at her hands. She had not meant to sound brave. She had meant to sound employable.
Adrian said, “You’re right to question the difference.”
“I’m not questioning. I know the difference.”
Pilar stood. “I’m going to check on the car.”
She left before either of them could ask her to remain.
Adrian rested his jacket across his knees. “Lionel saw you taking photographs near the portrait.”
Anna’s pulse quickened.
“They were for the condition report.”
“Pilar asked you?”
“Yes.”
“Do any of the photographs show the envelope?”
Anna reached for the phone and stopped.
Adrian noticed.
“I’m not asking to take it from you,” he said.
“If I show you, does it become estate property?”
“No.”
“Can you guarantee that?”
He did not answer immediately.
Anna looked toward the door. “That’s what I thought.”
“I can guarantee I won’t delete it, alter it, or prevent you from keeping it.”
“What about the agency rule?”
“I am not interested in disciplining you for taking inventory photographs.”
“Ms. Vale might be.”
“She has no authority over the agency.”
“She called them last month because I served coffee in the wrong cups.”
Adrian stared at her. “What?”
“The breakfast cups have a green line. I used the ones with the gold line because the green set was still in the dishwasher.”
“That generated a call?”
“She said standards were slipping.”
He looked away and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t know.”
“No.”
The single word carried more accusation than Anna intended. Adrian heard it anyway.
“May I see the photograph?” he asked.
She unlocked the phone and opened the image. She did not hand it over. Instead, she held it where he could view the screen.
He leaned forward.
The picture showed Celeste with the envelope. It also showed the unbroken glass. The crack would appear three minutes later.
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
“Send a copy to yourself,” he said.
“I already back up my photos.”
“Good. Send another copy to someone you trust.”
Anna lowered the phone. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want the only record in this house.”
It was the first thing he had said that made her believe he understood where she stood.
He asked whether she would provide the image to the insurer. Anna said she wanted to speak with someone independent first.
“An attorney?” he asked.
“I don’t have one.”
“I can arrange—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“I don’t want a family attorney,” she said.
“That’s fair.”
“I don’t want the estate choosing anyone for me.”
“That’s also fair.”
The car arrived ten minutes later. Pilar went with Anna to a clinic in Yonkers because the nearest urgent-care facility that accepted walk-ins had a forty-minute wait and because Pilar did not trust drivers to notice when frightened young women were pretending not to be frightened.
At reception, Anna was asked three times whether she had been assaulted.
“No,” she said each time.
“Were you struck?”
“No.”
“Did anyone make physical contact with you?”
“She grabbed my sleeve.”
“Did you fall?”
“No.”
“Any direct trauma to the abdomen?”
“No.”
The nurse looked at the form. “Then why are we checking the pregnancy?”
Anna glanced at Pilar.
“Because fear is not a medical diagnosis,” Pilar said, “and neither of us is qualified to make one.”
The nurse almost smiled. “That is true.”
The examination showed no immediate concern. Anna heard the fetal heartbeat for the first time through a small speaker that crackled like an old radio. The sound was fast, steady, and completely indifferent to Vale House.
She stared at a ceiling tile with a brown water mark while the clinician moved the device across her skin.
“Everything looks appropriate for eleven weeks,” the woman said.
Anna nodded.
“You have an obstetrician?”
“An appointment next month.”
“You need one sooner.”
“My insurance—”
Pilar said, “We will make the appointment.”
Anna turned her head. “No, we won’t.”
The clinician lifted the device away. “I’ll give you information for clinics with sliding-scale care. You two can argue after I leave.”
When the door closed, Pilar handed Anna a paper towel to wipe the gel from her stomach.
“I wasn’t offering charity,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“Because everyone at that house decides what happens to people and calls it help.”
Pilar folded the unused paper towel into smaller and smaller squares.
“That is not entirely unfair,” she said.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize because I admitted you were right.”
Anna sat up. “I can’t have them pay for everything and then say I made my own choice.”
“Also not unfair.”
Pilar dropped the folded towel into the trash. “But there are times when refusing help is another way of letting pride make decisions. I know because I have been unbearable about it since 1997.”
Anna looked at her.
“My first year at Vale House,” Pilar said. “My husband left. I told everyone I was relieved, which was partly true. Then I worked seventeen days without taking a night off because I didn’t want anyone to think I needed money. Lionel finally locked the service-office door and said he would call the police if I tried to clean another room.”
“Would he have?”
“No. Lionel dislikes speaking to police on the telephone.”
A laugh escaped Anna before she could stop it.
Pilar nodded toward the examination table. “There. You are still capable of making an ugly sound. Good.”
May you like
On the drive back, Anna asked to be taken home instead of the estate.
Pilar did not argue. She waited in the car until Anna entered her apartment building, then called Adrian.
