Chương 4
“Lily left her foster placement this afternoon. We’ve been looking for her for four hours.”
“How did she get here?”
“Bus.”
Richard turned toward Lily.
“Alone?”
Lily shrugged.
Richard closed his eyes briefly.
Denise said, “Her mother died Tuesday morning. There was no legal guardian listed. The emergency contact was a neighbor who is not able to provide long-term placement. Lily mentioned a grandfather named Richard but didn’t provide a last name until this morning. Apparently she decided we were moving too slowly.”
“I told you his last name.”
“You told my colleague his name was Richard Moneybags.”
Lily looked at the floor.
The police officer near the door coughed.
Richard stared at her.
“My mom called you that once.”
Denise shut the folder.
“I need Lily to return with me tonight.”
Richard’s expression tightened.
“Where?”
“To the same foster home.”
“She said she doesn’t want to go.”
“She also left without permission and crossed downtown alone.”
“She was trying to find family.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you?”
Denise looked at Richard for a long moment.
“Yes, Mr. Hale. I do. That doesn’t make traffic less dangerous.”
Lily picked at a loose thread in the cashmere sleeve.
The anger went out of Richard’s face.
“What do I need to do?”
Denise’s tone softened slightly.
“Tomorrow morning we start verifying the relationship. Birth records. Family history. Background checks. Home assessment if placement becomes a possibility. DNA if records aren’t sufficient or if anyone contests it.”
“No one will contest it.”
“You don’t know that.”
Richard looked irritated again.
Then Lily spoke.
“My mom would.”
Everyone turned.
Lily swallowed.
“She said he’d probably try to decide everything.”
Richard looked at her.
The room stayed quiet.
Lily pulled something from inside her dress.
Not the locket.
A folded piece of paper, softened by being opened and closed too many times.
Richard’s eyes dropped to it.
“What is that?”
Lily held it against her chest.
“Mine.”
He nodded.
She expected him to ask again.
He didn’t.
That was the first thing he did that contradicted her mother.
Lily returned to the foster home at eleven forty-three that night.
Richard did not like it.
He told Denise so four times.
On the fifth, Lily said, “You’re repeating yourself.”
He stopped.
Before she got into the state car, he crouched beside her.
The charcoal coat was still around her shoulders.
“You can keep that tonight.”
“I’m not stealing your coat.”
“You’re not.”
“It costs too much.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel it.”
Richard almost smiled.
“Keep it.”
Lily looked at Denise.
Denise said, “It’s fine.”
Lily climbed into the back seat.
Richard remained beside the open door.
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
Lily considered him.
“My mom said you hate waiting.”
A muscle moved in his cheek.
“She was right.”
“So wait.”
Richard nodded.
“All right.”
Denise shut the door.
The car pulled away.
Richard stood beneath the hotel awning until the taillights disappeared into traffic.
Only then did he notice that the ballroom’s event director was waiting several feet behind him.
“Mr. Hale.”
Richard turned.
The man held a tablet with both hands.
“There’s something you should know.”
Richard was tired enough to dislike him before he spoke.
“What?”
“Several guests recorded what happened.”
“I saw.”
“One video is already online.”
Richard stared at him.
“How many people have it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
The man hesitated.
Richard heard himself.
Find out.
Control it.
Remove it.
Fix it.
The old machinery in him had started without permission.
Anna’s voice came back to him, twenty-two years old and furious in the library of his Connecticut house.
You don’t solve things, Dad. You purchase a version you can stand to look at.
He had told her not to be dramatic.
He could still remember that.
Not the entire argument.
Just his own worst sentence.
Richard looked at the event director.
“Don’t contact anyone.”
“Sir?”
“Don’t threaten takedowns. Don’t call guests. Don’t send lawyers.”
The man blinked.
“All right.”
“Ask hotel security to preserve the footage from tonight.”
“For legal purposes?”
“For accuracy.”
Richard walked back inside.
The ballroom had mostly emptied.
Staff moved among abandoned glasses and wilted white flowers. A young waiter knelt near the place where Lily’s bread had scattered, cleaning crumbs from the marble.
Richard stopped beside him.
The waiter stood quickly.
“Sorry, sir.”
“What happened before I arrived?”
The young man glanced around.
Richard recognized fear.
He lowered his voice.
“I’m not asking to punish you.”
The waiter looked unconvinced.
“She came in maybe ten minutes before you.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. She was near the service entrance first. One of the banquet captains told her guests had to use the main doors. She asked if you were here.”
“And?”
“I told her you were coming.”
“Did she say why she wanted me?”
“No. She asked if food was free.”
Richard looked toward the crushed piece of bread still visible in the trash pan.
The waiter continued.
“I gave her a roll and an apple from the kitchen.”
“The bag?”
“Mine.”
Richard nodded.
“Then Ms. Hale saw her.”
“What did Victoria say?”
The waiter’s face tightened.
“I didn’t hear everything.”
“What did you hear?”
“She asked whose child she was. Lily said her mother told her to find somebody.”
“Me?”
“I think so.”
“And Victoria kicked the bag.”
The waiter looked down.
“Yes.”
“Did anyone intervene?”
The waiter was silent.
Richard looked around the ballroom.
“No,” he said.
The waiter swallowed.
“I was going to.”
Richard did not rescue him.
The young man added, “I should have.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised both of them.
Richard left the ballroom after midnight.
May you like
At home, he did not sleep.
His house had twenty-three rooms if the basement service areas were counted, although Richard had never known why anyone counted them. Anna used to say the house was large enough to lose an argument in. When she was sixteen, she had discovered that if she slammed her bedroom door, Richard could not hear it from his office.
