Chương 3
She was still sitting beside the fountain, staring at the hole beneath the roses.
Anna moved quickly through the mansion without asking directions.
That frightened Ethan more than anything else.
She knew where the side hall turned.
She knew which staircase led to the service corridor.
She knew the narrow door beside the pantry stuck at the bottom, and she lifted it slightly before pulling.
Lily noticed too.
“Mom?”
“Not now.”
“You know this house.”
Anna kept walking.
“Mom.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Anna stopped.
A young catering employee nearly walked into them and apologized before hurrying around.
Anna looked at her children.
There were things adults did when they wanted to answer without answering. She usually became practical. She asked if homework was finished, whether Ethan had his inhaler, whether Lily had remembered her sweater.
Now she said, “Because I lived here.”
Lily’s mouth opened.
Ethan said, “With him?”
Anna closed her eyes for a second.
“With Charles.”
“Is he your dad?”
Anna’s eyes opened.
“Yes.”
Ethan heard Lily inhale.
He himself felt strangely blank.
He had always believed his mother’s parents were dead.
Not because she had said so exactly.
Because whenever school forms asked for emergency contacts, she left the grandparent line empty. Because there were no grandparents at birthdays. Because when Lily had once asked whether Mom had a mommy, Anna had said, “Everybody comes from somewhere,” then changed the subject.
Ethan had interpreted absence as death because death was simpler.
Charles appeared at the end of the hall.
He had followed more slowly.
Anna saw him.
“We’re still leaving.”
“I won’t stop you.”
She gave a short, humorless laugh.
“That would be new.”
Charles absorbed it.
“What did I do?”
Anna stared at him.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
“Then Eleanor did an excellent job.”
Charles looked toward the corridor behind him.
“She told me you left voluntarily.”
“I did leave.”
“She said you took money from the foundation.”
“I didn’t.”
“She had records.”
“She made records.”
“She said you were afraid of prosecution.”
Anna’s expression shifted.
Not surprise.
Confirmation.
Ethan could see that whatever his grandfather was saying fit something she had once suspected but never proved.
Charles continued. “Then there was the car.”
Anna leaned against the wall.
“What car?”
“Yours. Found outside Portland.”
“I’ve never been to Portland.”
Charles stopped.
“The police found your coat inside.”
Anna shook her head slowly.
“I left that coat here.”
Charles’s grip tightened on his cane.
“When?”
“The night I left.”
“When?”
Anna looked at Eleanor, who had entered the corridor behind him.
“Twelve years ago.”
Eleanor said nothing.
Charles turned.
For the first time, Ethan saw fear in her without disguise.
Charles did not accuse her.
He simply asked, “Where did Caroline’s coat come from?”
Eleanor’s lips parted.
Anna said, “Don’t.”
Charles looked back.
Anna had gone pale.
“Not in front of them.”
Ethan knew who she meant.
He hated it.
“I’m not a baby.”
“You’re ten.”
“I found the ring.”
“That doesn’t promote you.”
“Mom.”
“No.”
Her tone ended the argument.
She knelt in front of Lily and tucked one loose braid behind her shoulder.
“I need you and Ethan to sit in the kitchen for a few minutes.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know.”
“Is that lady going to hit Ethan again?”
Anna’s face went still.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Anna looked at Eleanor.
“Because she won’t get near either of you.”
Eleanor looked offended.
The emotion might have been convincing if Ethan had not seen her face beside the roses.
Charles called the house manager, a man named Robert Kell, and asked him to take the children to the staff kitchen.
Anna objected immediately.
“No strangers.”
“Robert has worked here thirty-one years.”
“That doesn’t make him not a stranger to them.”
Robert, who had just arrived, stopped awkwardly.
“I could leave the door open,” he offered.
Anna looked embarrassed.
“Sorry. That sounded—”
“Like a mother,” Robert said.
Then he looked at her properly.
The color drained from his face.
“Miss Caroline?”
Anna stared at him.
Robert’s mouth trembled.
“Oh.”
He covered it with one hand.
That reaction convinced Ethan more completely than anything Charles had said.
Anna looked away first.
“Hi, Robert.”
The old house manager laughed once in disbelief and then began crying without making a sound.
He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked annoyed at himself.
“Sorry. Good Lord. Sorry.”
Anna almost smiled.
Almost.
“You got old.”
Robert looked down at his stomach. “You too.”
She actually smiled then.
It lasted less than a second.
Ethan stored it away.
Robert took them to the kitchen.
The door remained open.
Lily received a glass of milk she did not want and two cookies she did. Ethan refused everything until Robert put a bag of frozen peas on his hand.
“This is stupid,” Ethan said.
“It’s what we have.”
“You have a mansion.”
“And yet no proper ice pack.”
Ethan held the peas against his fingers.
Lily swung her legs beneath the chair.
“Is Mom rich?”
Robert looked toward the open door.
“I’m not answering that.”
“Was she?”
“I’m not answering that either.”
“Are we?”
“No idea.”
Ethan said, “We’re not.”
Lily ate half a cookie.
“How do you know?”
“Because our microwave has tape on it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means something.”
Robert made an involuntary snorting sound.
Ethan looked at him.
The old man straightened his face.
“Sorry.”
The absurdity of sitting in a mansion kitchen discussing their broken microwave while their mother’s former identity unraveled down the hallway made Ethan dizzy.
He pressed the peas harder against his hand.
“What happened twelve years ago?”
Robert’s expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
“You worked here.”
“I worked here. That doesn’t mean I knew.”
“You thought she disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“Did you look for her?”
Robert glanced toward the door.
“For years.”
“Who?”
“Mr. Whitmore. Police. Private investigators.”
“Eleanor?”
Robert did not answer.
That was an answer.
Down the hall, voices rose.
May you like
Ethan slipped off the chair.
Robert caught his shoulder.
