Chương 10
Richard asked, “What did you know?”
“That she had been involved with you.”
“And?”
“That your father paid her.”
“And?”
“That there had been a pregnancy.”
Richard’s voice became very quiet.
“Did you know the child lived?”
Victoria looked at him.
“No.”
Maya watched her left hand.
A small tremor near the thumb.
“Did you know Elena contacted the foundation in 2013?” Richard asked.
Victoria did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
“Did you receive her letter?”
“Yes.”
“Did you read it?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked up sharply.
Richard’s face went gray.
“What did it say?”
Victoria stared at the table.
“That her daughter was asking questions.”
“Her daughter.”
“Yes.”
“So you knew the child lived.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
No one spoke.
Daniel looked at the carpet.
Richard leaned back as if someone had pushed him.
Victoria turned toward him.
“Your father told me it had been handled.”
“You knew my daughter was alive.”
“I knew a woman claimed to have your daughter.”
“You read her name.”
“Yes.”
“You read that she was twelve.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
Victoria’s voice sharpened.
“What exactly do you imagine I should have done?”
Richard stared at her.
“Tell me.”
“And then?”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“No. It was your father’s decision. And before you pretend he was the only one making them, he showed me the correspondence you refused to read.”
Maya looked at Richard.
Richard stiffened.
Victoria continued.
“He told me you wanted nothing to do with Elena.”
“I thought the child was dead.”
“I did not know what you thought.”
“You could have asked.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Victoria looked at him for a long time.
“Because I was twenty-four years old, working for a man who could end my career with a phone call, and I had just started sleeping with his married son.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Maya stared at Victoria.
Richard said, “We were separated.”
Victoria laughed.
“Oh, please.”
Daniel murmured, “Victoria.”
“No. If everyone wants history, they can have history.”
She turned to Maya.
“I read your mother’s letter. I gave it to Charles. He told me she had been paid years earlier to disappear. He said she had come back whenever she wanted money.”
“My mother sent four letters over nine years.”
“I didn’t know that then.”
“You knew about the one.”
“Yes.”
“You wrote ‘do not forward.’”
“Because Charles instructed me to.”
“And then you married Richard.”
Victoria looked away.
Maya said, “Did you ever think about me?”
Victoria’s eyes returned to her.
“Yes.”
The answer surprised Maya.
“When?”
“More than once.”
“What did you think?”
Victoria looked at Richard.
“That if it was true, he would find you eventually.”
Maya laughed softly.
“That’s convenient.”
“I know.”
“Did you look?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Victoria’s face hardened.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Everything changing.”
There it was.
Not a legal argument.
Not a polished explanation.
Fear.
Victoria looked at Adrian.
“Your father had finally stopped trying to rescue people who didn’t ask to be rescued. Adrian was seventeen and furious at everyone. The foundation was stabilizing. We had a life.”
Adrian’s expression went flat.
“So you protected the life you liked.”
“Yes.”
He looked as though the admission hurt more than a denial would have.
Victoria turned back to Maya.
“I told myself your mother had chosen distance.”
“She was threatened.”
“I know that now.”
“You had her letter.”
“I had one letter.”
“You had my name.”
“Yes.”
“My age.”
“Yes.”
“My father’s identity.”
“Yes.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
She blinked once and the tears did not fall.
Maya found herself grateful for that.
She did not want tears from Victoria.
Richard said, “Why did you ask about Maya at the auction before she arrived?”
Victoria froze.
A full second passed.
Then another.
Maya watched the answer form and die behind her eyes.
Victoria looked at Richard.
“How do you know I did?”
“Answer.”
Victoria’s hand closed around the edge of the table.
“I saw the guest list.”
“And?”
“I recognized the surname.”
“Reyes is not an uncommon name.”
“No.”
“What else?”
Victoria looked at Maya.
“I had seen your photograph.”
Maya’s skin prickled.
“Where?”
Victoria swallowed.
“In an investigator’s update.”
Richard leaned forward.
“What update?”
“From 2018.”
Daniel looked startled.
Richard said, “There was no 2018 report in the archive.”
“I removed it.”
Silence.
Maya stared at her.
“Why was someone investigating me in 2018?”
Victoria’s voice became smaller.
“Charles.”
“He died in 2019.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya stood.
Victoria flinched.
“What did the report say?”
“That Elena still lived in Los Angeles County.”
“And me?”
“That you were in graduate school.”
“You knew where I went to school.”
“Yes.”
“My address?”
Victoria looked down.
“Yes.”
Maya pushed her chair back.
The legs scraped against the floor.
Adrian said, “Maya.”
She lifted one hand.
He stopped.
Maya walked to the window.
Traffic moved twelve floors below.
Ordinary cars.
Ordinary people going somewhere without discovering that strangers had kept files on their childhood.
Richard’s voice behind her was almost unrecognizable.
“You removed the report.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“I have it.”
“Where?”
“In a safe-deposit box.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Richard stood.
“Get it.”
Victoria looked at him.
“You don’t understand what’s in it.”
“Then help me.”
Her lips parted.
Maya turned.
Victoria’s face had the same expression it had at the auction just before Richard asked how long she had known.
Fear stripped of elegance.
“What is in it?” Maya asked.
Victoria looked at her.
“Something your mother wrote.”
Maya’s heart thudded.
“What?”
“A statement.”
“To who?”
“Charles.”
“When?”
“2018.”
“My mother contacted him again?”
“No.”
Victoria shook her head.
“He contacted her.”
Nobody moved.
Maya walked back to the table.
“Why?”
Victoria looked at Richard.
“Because he was dying.”
Charles Vale had been diagnosed with an aggressive neurological disease in late 2018.
He had kept it private for months.
May you like
According to Victoria, he hired the investigator to locate Elena because he wanted to resolve what he called “unfinished liabilities.”
Maya hated the phrase immediately.
