Chương 4
“You have work tomorrow.”
“So do you.”
“Apparently not.”
Tessa went quiet.
Leah regretted saying it. She was not angry at Tessa, but anger needed somewhere to land and friendship often looked dangerously sturdy.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No, you’re not. You’re in shock.”
“I’m not in shock.”
“You watched a billionaire discover he might be your father after his wife dumped your purse on a ballroom floor.”
“He’s not a billionaire.”
“Fine. A deeply upsetting multimillionaire.”
Despite herself, Leah made a sound that was almost a laugh.
Tessa heard it and softened.
“I’m bringing food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I’m not bringing it because I trust your judgment.”
Tessa arrived twenty minutes later wearing pink scrub pants, a black sweatshirt, and rain boots. She carried two paper bags and a bottle of dish soap because she had stopped at a pharmacy and forgotten what Leah actually needed.
She set the dish soap on the counter.
“I panicked.”
Leah looked at it.
“We were low.”
“You were not.”
“I could sense it.”
They ate fries at the kitchen table while the locket lay between them.
Tessa did not touch it. She studied the photograph through the cloudy glass.
“You look like her,” she said.
“Everyone online thinks I look like him.”
“You have his eyebrows.”
“I’ve always hated my eyebrows.”
“That seems like relevant evidence.”
Leah pushed the fries away.
Tessa’s humor faded. “What did Rosa tell you about your father?”
“That Claire wouldn’t say his name.”
“Ever?”
“She said he wasn’t part of our lives.”
“Did she say why?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“Not after I was twelve.”
At twelve, Leah had found a school form requiring her father’s medical history. Rosa was washing dishes when Leah asked. Her back stiffened. A plate slipped from her hands and cracked in the sink.
“Some people give you their name,” Rosa had said. “Some people give you work to do. Don’t confuse the two.”
Leah had taken the answer as bitterness. Rosa distrusted men who owned more than two pairs of dress shoes. She distrusted insurance agents, landlords, municipal clerks, and anyone who described a fee as nominal. Her suspicion had always seemed general.
Now Leah remembered the plate.
“I should look through her things,” she said.
Tessa glanced toward the closed bedroom door.
“Tonight?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“But there might be papers.”
“There might also be six hundred grocery receipts and every birthday card anyone ever sent her.”
“That too.”
“You don’t have to solve this before sunrise.”
Leah touched the edge of the locket.
“I don’t know what ‘this’ is.”
At seven-thirty the next morning, Verdant House fired her.
They did it through a video call. Leah’s supervisor, Mark, sat beside the company’s owner in a conference room with a decorative wall of artificial moss behind them.
The owner said the situation was temporary.
Mark said it was not termination, exactly.
Leah asked whether she was being paid.
They looked at each other.
The owner explained that Verdant House had received dozens of messages and two clients had threatened to cancel events. Until the facts became clearer, the company needed to protect the team.
“What facts?” Leah asked.
“The accusation.”
“The bracelet was found.”
“Yes, but the larger situation is complicated.”
“My parentage?”
The owner’s smile collapsed. “We’re not making assumptions.”
“You’re suspending me because someone accused me of stealing something that was never stolen.”
“We’re pausing assignments because your presence may draw media attention.”
“You posted my photograph last month.”
“We’ve removed it.”
Mark looked miserable. He was not cruel, which made the conversation worse. Cruelty would have given Leah something clean to resist. Instead, she watched a decent man choose a paycheck over defending her and knew she might have done the same.
“Please return your warehouse key,” the owner said.
Leah reached behind her and held it up.
“I’ll mail it.”
The call ended.
Three minutes later, Julian called.
Leah answered without greeting him.
“They fired me.”
His silence lasted a fraction too long.
“I was told they placed you on leave.”
“They used different words.”
“I’ll speak to them.”
“No.”
“The hotel is their largest client.”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want my job back because a rich man threatens my employer.”
“I wasn’t going to threaten them.”
“What were you going to do?”
Julian did not answer.
Leah rubbed her forehead. She had slept for ninety minutes.
“I don’t want favors.”
“It would not be a favor.”
“You keep saying that before offering favors.”
“I am trying to repair harm.”
“You can’t repair this by making another phone call no one can refuse.”
His breathing changed. She heard faint traffic through his end of the line.
“What would you have me do?” he asked.
“Tell the truth.”
“I don’t know the truth.”
“Then start with what you do know. Your wife falsely accused me in public. Your hotel confirmed nothing was stolen. Say that.”
“I can issue a statement.”
“Not one that says there was an unfortunate misunderstanding.”
He was quiet again.
“Diana drafted one last night,” he admitted.
“Did it say misunderstanding?”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t use it.”
A cupboard door closed in the background. Julian lowered his voice.
“Will you meet me?”
“No.”
“Leah—”
She stiffened at the sound of her name. It was too familiar.
“Do not call me that as though you know me.”
“All right.”
He waited.
She hated that he waited well. People with power often mistook patience for kindness. They could afford silence because someone else had to fill it.
“What did Eleanor tell you?” Leah asked.
Julian exhaled.
“That Claire left the city when she learned she was pregnant. Four months later, Eleanor told me there had been complications. She said the baby was born early and died. She said Claire refused to see me.”
“And you believed her?”
“I had reasons.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No. It isn’t.”
“Did you look for my mother?”
“Yes.”
May you like
“How hard?”
The question landed. Leah knew because he stopped speaking like a hotel owner.
