Chương 9
Adrian looked away.
The letter continued.
Your decision regarding Maya must be yours. I will not pretend my son has shown courage in this. I love him. Those two facts can coexist.
Maya lowered the page.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Helen, the archivist, quietly left the room.
Adrian rubbed his hands together.
“My grandmother had a way with compliments.”
Maya laughed despite herself.
“She seems terrifying.”
“She was.”
Maya looked at the final envelope.
It was addressed to Richard but never mailed.
Eleanor had written it in 2008.
Richard,
There is something I have failed to tell you because I convinced myself that your father’s lie was your burden to discover, not mine to expose. That was cowardice dressed as principle.
Elena’s daughter lived.
Her name is Maya.
Maya stopped.
The letter continued.
I do not know where they are now. I do know Charles knew she survived. I knew too. If you are reading this, it means I finally became less afraid of destroying our family than of helping preserve a lie.
The letter had never been sent.
Adrian leaned back.
“Why keep it?”
Maya looked at the envelope.
“Maybe she couldn’t do it.”
“Then she’s not much better than everyone else.”
“No.”
Adrian seemed surprised.
Maya folded the letter carefully.
“No, she isn’t.”
On the drive home, they stopped near Carpinteria for food.
They sat outside at a small place beside a grocery store, eating tacos from paper plates while trucks moved along the highway.
Adrian stared at his.
“Do you hate him?”
Maya knew who he meant.
“I don’t know him well enough.”
“I hate him a little.”
“He raised you.”
“Yes.”
“That complicates it.”
“That’s the irritating part.”
Maya wiped salsa from her thumb.
“Did you know he had the 2002 envelope?”
Adrian nodded.
“He told me.”
“What did you say?”
“I asked if he was stupid.”
Maya looked at him.
“What?”
“I was angry.”
“What did he say?”
“He said yes.”
Maya smiled despite herself.
Adrian looked toward the parking lot.
“I spent most of my life thinking he was the person in the family who didn’t lie.”
“He didn’t lie to you about me if he didn’t know.”
“He lied about other things.”
“Like?”
“That he was happy. That he and Victoria were fine. That work mattered less than family. Normal father lies.”
Maya considered that.
“Maybe those are worse because everyone participates.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You sound like Grandma.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
The next major break came from Claire Morgan.
She called Maya on a Thursday afternoon.
“I may have something you need to see.”
“What?”
“Security footage from the auction.”
“I already know Victoria hit me.”
“Not that footage.”
Claire had reviewed the mansion’s cameras because Victoria’s attorney was disputing whether she had attempted to take the pendant or merely “restrain Ms. Reyes during an escalating confrontation.”
Claire sounded offended by the wording.
“There’s footage from forty minutes before you arrived,” she said.
Maya met her at the auction company’s Century City office.
Claire played a silent clip.
Victoria stood near the registration desk with a printed guest list.
She pointed to one name.
Maya Reyes.
Then she took out her phone.
She searched something.
A moment later she walked away from the desk and made a call.
Maya watched it twice.
“She knew I was coming.”
“Yes.”
“Can you see what she searched?”
“No.”
“Can you hear the call?”
“No.”
Claire hesitated.
“But I spoke with the registration assistant.”
“What did she say?”
“That Mrs. Vale asked whether you had already checked in.”
Maya felt cold.
“When?”
“Forty minutes before the confrontation.”
“So the pendant didn’t surprise her.”
“Not completely.”
Maya stared at the frozen image of Victoria.
“What did she know?”
Claire folded her hands.
“I don’t know.”
Maya looked at her.
“Would you sign a statement saying what you saw?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Claire seemed surprised by the question.
“Because it happened.”
“That has not been a sufficient reason for most people involved.”
Claire considered that.
“No,” she said. “I suppose not.”
That evening Maya sent the footage information to Richard.
He called immediately.
“She knew your name before she saw the pendant.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to speak to her.”
“Don’t tell her about the footage.”
Richard paused.
“Why?”
“I want to know what she says without knowing what we have.”
“Maya.”
“What?”
“You are starting to sound like an investigator.”
“I am an investigator.”
“You investigate paintings.”
“People lie about paintings too.”
Richard sighed.
“Fine.”
“Ask her when she first heard my name.”
“And if she lies?”
“Let her.”
Richard was quiet.
Maya said, “What?”
“I’m not used to being told not to confront someone with evidence immediately.”
“That might explain some things.”
He laughed.
It was the first time she had heard it.
Not the polished public chuckle from interviews.
A tired, reluctant sound.
“I walked into that.”
“Yes.”
Victoria agreed to meet Richard the following morning at Daniel Mercer’s office.
Maya was not supposed to be there.
She insisted.
Daniel objected.
Richard objected less strongly.
Adrian said he was coming too.
Daniel looked around the conference room.
“This is precisely how every attorney wants to begin a sensitive conversation.”
No one answered.
“Excellent.”
Victoria arrived eight minutes late.
She stopped when she saw Maya.
“I was told this was between Richard and me.”
Richard said, “It was. That changed.”
Victoria removed her sunglasses.
She looked exhausted.
For the first time, Maya could see the woman beneath the public construction.
No diamonds.
No makeup except mascara.
Hair tied back badly.
It did not make Maya feel sorry for her.
It did make hatred less simple.
Victoria sat.
Daniel remained near the far wall.
Richard began.
“When did you first hear the name Maya Reyes?”
Victoria looked at Maya.
“At the auction.”
Maya said nothing.
Richard’s eyes did not leave Victoria.
“You’re certain?”
“Yes.”
“And Elena?”
Victoria’s jaw moved.
“I knew about Elena from your father’s files.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“Richard.”
“When?”
May you like
“2013.”
Adrian looked down.
