Chương 3
Richard pointed carefully toward the bear.
“May I look at the ribbon?”
Lily hesitated.
Then she held the bear out but did not release it.
Richard touched the small stitched blue ribbon between two fingers.
His hand trembled.
“I tied this.”
Lily stared at him.
Richard released the ribbon.
“Rebecca bought the bear at a pharmacy on Nantucket. It was raining and we’d missed the ferry. She said it had a stupid face.”
Lily looked offended.
“It doesn’t.”
“I agreed with you.”
“You said it had a stupid face?”
“I said she was wrong.”
“Good.”
Richard nodded solemnly.
Elena watched him.
The story of the bear seemed too specific to be invented quickly. More than that, something about Richard’s voice had changed. He was no longer speaking to establish facts. He was speaking to a ghost who happened to have her mother’s eyes.
Lily asked, “Did you give it to her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Richard stared at the bear.
“We’d had an argument.”
“About what?”
He almost smiled.
“A boat.”
“That’s dumb.”
“It was extremely dumb.”
Lily considered him.
Then she pulled the bear back.
“Vanessa threw him.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“I know.”
“She’s mean.”
Elena cleared her throat.
Richard looked at her.
“She is.”
That answer surprised Elena more than anything else.
No qualification.
No defense.
No careful marital language.
Lily touched the bear’s ear.
“Is she your wife?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elena closed her eyes briefly.
Richard looked toward the ceiling.
“That,” he said after a moment, “is a very complicated question.”
Lily accepted this.
Children were often more tolerant of honest inadequacy than adults expected.
Richard leaned forward again.
“Lily, I need to ask you something important. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
She waited.
“Did your mother ever tell you my name?”
Lily nodded.
“Richard Hale?”
Another nod.
“Did she tell you where I lived?”
“She said outside New York.”
“Did she tell you why she didn’t contact me?”
Lily’s eyes changed.
Fear entered them again.
Elena felt it before Richard seemed to.
Lily hugged the bear tighter.
“She said somebody made it hard.”
Richard became still.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she say—”
Elena interrupted.
“Richard.”
He stopped.
Lily looked at Elena gratefully.
Elena kept her voice gentle.
“She’s six.”
Richard sat back.
“Yes.”
“You can ask those questions later.”
He nodded.
A minute passed.
Then Lily said, “My aunt has letters.”
Richard’s head lifted.
“What letters?”
“Mom’s.”
“Where?”
“Richard.”
He rubbed his face with one hand.
“Right. Sorry.”
Lily whispered, “At our apartment.”
Elena said, “Claire’s still in the hospital?”
Lily nodded.
“She broke her leg and her ribs.”
“Do you know which hospital?”
“St. Matthew’s.”
Richard stood again.
This time slowly.
“I need to make some calls.”
Lily looked worried.
“Are you leaving?”
The question caught him off guard.
“No.”
“Promise?”
Richard’s face tightened.
Elena expected him to avoid it.
Instead, he said, “I promise I won’t leave without telling you.”
Lily nodded.
That was enough.
Richard walked to the door.
Before he reached it, Lily called, “Richard?”
He turned.
She looked embarrassed.
“Do I have to call you Dad?”
Elena’s heart hurt at the practicality of it.
Richard leaned one shoulder against the doorframe.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“You can call me Richard until we know what’s true.”
“But you think it’s true.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“Yes.”
Then he left.
Vanessa was waiting outside.
Elena heard her immediately.
“You are not seriously entertaining this.”
Richard’s voice stayed low.
“Not here.”
“She is not your child.”
“Not here, Vanessa.”
“Rebecca was unstable.”
Elena saw Lily’s face change.
She rose and closed the door.
Too late.
Lily looked down at the bear.
“My mom wasn’t unstable.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Elena sat beside her again.
“I don’t.”
“Then why did you say no?”
“Because people say things like that when they want somebody else’s story to sound less believable.”
Lily thought about this.
“Vanessa lies.”
“I think she has.”
“Are you going to get fired?”
Elena laughed softly.
“Probably.”
Lily’s eyes widened.
“Because of me?”
“No.”
“Because you didn’t listen?”
“That part is definitely possible.”
Lily looked horrified.
Elena squeezed her shoulder.
“I can get another job.”
“Do you like this job?”
Elena looked around the blue sitting room.
She thought of the staff laundry machine that shook itself across the floor during the spin cycle, the kitchen freezer that froze lettuce but somehow softened ice cream, the east guest bedroom whose closet light never turned off, Richard’s habit of leaving empty coffee cups in his office, Vanessa’s habit of blaming Elena for fingerprints on mirrors Vanessa herself had touched.
“I like parts of it.”
“What parts?”
“The health insurance.”
Lily frowned.
Elena smiled.
“That was a grown-up joke.”
“Oh.”
“You’re allowed not to laugh.”
“I didn’t.”
“I noticed.”
Lily gave the smallest smile.
It disappeared when voices rose beyond the door.
Richard did not shout.
Vanessa did.
That was somehow more alarming.
“You think you can throw twelve years away because a child arrives with an old toy?”
Richard said something Elena could not hear.
Vanessa answered, “I protected you.”
The hallway went quiet.
Then Richard said, very clearly, “From what?”
Elena stood.
Lily reached for her hand.
They remained where they were.
Vanessa’s voice dropped again.
“You were twenty-nine. Rebecca was threatening to destroy everything you were building.”
“That is not what happened.”
“You remember what you want to remember.”
“I remember coming home and finding her apartment empty.”
“She left you.”
“So you said.”
A pause.
Elena felt cold.
Richard continued, “You told me she’d gone to Seattle.”
“She did.”
“She lived in Queens for four years after that.”
Silence.
Even Lily seemed to understand that the silence mattered.
Richard said, “My investigator confirmed it ten minutes ago.”
Vanessa’s cane struck the marble.
This time not lightly.
“You had someone investigate her?”
“I had someone investigate you.”
Lily looked up at Elena.
Elena put a finger to her lips.
Vanessa’s voice became thin.
May you like
“Richard.”
“I asked Mark to pull every financial record he can legally access involving Rebecca, Claire Mercer, and anyone connected to the trust account you managed for my mother.”
