Chương 11
“What did you do?”
“Gave it back.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to decide what it means yet.”
Claire put down a shirt.
“How did she take that?”
“She put it in a drawer.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Claire smiled faintly.
“Very Margaret.”
Daniel lay back on the bed.
“Then she asked if we needed a ride to the airport.”
Claire laughed.
Daniel covered his eyes with one arm.
“I told her no.”
“You should’ve said yes just to make it weird.”
He moved his arm and looked at her.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being appropriately inappropriate.”
She threw a sock at him.
The flight to Arizona took four hours and twenty minutes.
Daniel barely spoke.
He read half a book without turning many pages.
Claire slept for forty minutes and woke with her mouth open.
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“You were snoring.”
“I don’t snore.”
“You made a sound like a small lawn tool.”
“That was the man behind us.”
“He’s awake.”
Claire glanced back.
The man was indeed awake.
“Traitor.”
Daniel smiled.
The humor faded as soon as the plane began descending.
Rebecca suggested meeting at a botanical garden café because it was public but quiet.
Daniel agreed.
Claire understood the choice.
Nobody wanted a first meeting in a hotel room or someone’s home, where leaving would become an announcement.
They arrived early.
Daniel immediately regretted being early.
He stood, sat, stood again.
“Stop pacing,” Claire said.
“I’m not pacing.”
“You have walked past that same cactus four times.”
“It’s a nice cactus.”
“Sit.”
He sat.
At twelve fourteen, Rebecca approached.
Claire recognized her from the photograph.
She was smaller in person.
Sixty-seven. Gray-blond hair cut at her jaw. Green blouse beneath a light jacket despite the heat inside the café. She walked with a slight stiffness in one knee.
She saw Daniel.
Stopped.
For one second, Claire was afraid she might collapse into tears or rush at him.
Rebecca did neither.
She put one hand against the strap of her purse.
“Daniel?”
He stood.
“Yes.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I’m Rebecca.”
“I know.”
An awkward silence.
Then Rebecca looked at Claire.
“You must be Claire.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for coming with him.”
Claire glanced at Daniel.
“I was invited.”
Rebecca smiled nervously.
“Good.”
Nobody hugged.
That felt right.
They sat.
A server appeared almost immediately, destroying whatever first sentence Rebecca had prepared.
“Can I start you folks with something to drink?”
Daniel closed his eyes for half a second.
Rebecca laughed.
Not loudly.
“I’ll have iced tea.”
Claire ordered water.
Daniel said, “Coffee.”
The server left.
Rebecca folded a paper napkin in half.
“I had a speech.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That sounds dangerous.”
She smiled.
“It was terrible.”
“Good.”
“I forgot all of it anyway.”
Daniel nodded.
“Also good.”
They looked at each other.
Claire saw the resemblance now.
Not the eyes.
The pauses.
Both of them delayed before answering uncomfortable questions, as if language needed to pass inspection.
Rebecca said, “You look like your father.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“Which one?”
Rebecca winced.
“Your biological father.”
“Who is he?”
She had not expected the question that quickly.
Claire saw it.
Rebecca looked at her tea, though it had not arrived.
“His name is Andrew Cole.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know about me?”
Rebecca’s hesitation answered first.
“Yes.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Did everybody know except me?”
“No.”
“It’s starting to feel competitive.”
Rebecca swallowed.
“Andrew knew I was pregnant. He did not know where you were for many years.”
“Was he married?”
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“To you?”
“No.”
Claire looked away.
There it was.
Ordinary ugliness.
Not a conspiracy.
A married man and a nineteen-year-old woman.
Rebecca said, “He was twenty-eight. He worked for my father.”
Daniel stared.
“Dad’s note said Leonard was protecting somebody.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Andrew was his operations manager. Leonard liked him. He was useful.”
“Did Andrew want you to keep me?”
Rebecca took a breath.
“He wanted me to end the pregnancy.”
Daniel looked down.
“He offered money too?”
“Yes.”
“How original.”
The drinks arrived.
Nobody touched them.
Rebecca continued.
“When I refused, he told me he would deny everything.”
“Did he?”
“For a while.”
“Then?”
“My father found out.”
“How?”
“I told him.”
“Why?”
“I thought he would help me.”
Rebecca gave a small, embarrassed laugh.
“That sentence sounds ridiculous now.”
“It probably didn’t at nineteen.”
Her eyes filled.
She looked at Claire, surprised.
Claire shrugged.
“I’ve been nineteen.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Leonard did not help. He was furious because Andrew was married and because he thought people at the company would talk. He told me I had humiliated him.”
Daniel wrapped both hands around the coffee cup.
“And Thomas?”
“My father called him.”
“Why?”
“He was the company lawyer.”
Daniel stared.
“So Dad’s involvement started because he was cleaning up a client’s scandal.”
“Yes.”
“Did he offer to help you?”
“At first.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked toward the courtyard.
“I think Margaret wanted a child, and Thomas saw a solution before any of us understood that was what he was doing.”
Daniel’s face went still.
“Did he plan it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he falsify the adoption?”
“I know he lied in it.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I’m not qualified to tell you what was legally valid.”
Daniel looked irritated.
Rebecca held his gaze.
“I spent too many years saying things I couldn’t prove because I needed them to be true. I’m trying not to do that now.”
Daniel’s irritation faded slightly.
Claire noticed.
Rebecca took a sip of tea.
“Thomas told the court I could not be located. He had received two letters from me within the month. That part was a lie.”
“And Andrew?”
“He signed an affidavit denying paternity.”
“Was there a test?”
“No.”
“Have you had contact with him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“On and off.”
Daniel stared.
Rebecca added quickly, “Not romantically.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“I know.”
“Why contact?”
“Because after Leonard died, I told Andrew I intended to find you.”
May you like
“What did he say?”
“That I should leave you alone.”
