Chương 8
“He said, ‘People are complicated.’”
Sophie smiled.
“That’s extremely Dad.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“He made pancakes.”
“Also Dad.”
“Terrible pancakes.”
“Absolutely.”
They sat in silence.
For the first time that day, Sophie cried.
Quietly.
Not for Michael.
Not even for herself.
For Daniel.
Because in learning that he was not her biological father, she had found evidence everywhere that he had chosen the job with his eyes open.
Margaret reached across the table.
This time she did not touch Sophie until Sophie turned her hand over.
Then they held on.
At 1:14 in the morning, Michael’s phone rang at the motel.
Robert Vale called back.
By 8:00, all four of them were sitting in the boathouse again.
Sophie had slept perhaps two hours.
Michael put his phone on the table.
“He wants to meet.”
“Where?” Ethan asked.
“Burlington.”
“When?”
“Eleven.”
Margaret shook her head.
“You are not going.”
Sophie looked at her.
“Mom.”
“I know. I know.”
Margaret pressed her fingers to her forehead.
“I’m practicing.”
“Practice quieter.”
Ethan coughed to hide a laugh.
Margaret glared at him.
Sophie looked at Michael.
“What did he say?”
“That he met Daniel.”
“Did he admit pretending to be you?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He said if we wanted answers, come hear them.”
Ethan leaned back.
“Normal innocent-person behavior.”
Sophie agreed.
Still, they went.
Not all of them.
Margaret refused.
“I spent enough years letting the Vale brothers determine where I went.”
Michael accepted that without argument.
Sophie, Ethan and Michael drove separately to Burlington.
The meeting place was a coffee shop on North Avenue.
Public.
Bright.
Unromantic.
Sophie was grateful.
Robert was already there.
For one disturbing second, she thought Michael had somehow entered ahead of them.
Then she saw the differences.
Robert was heavier.
His hair was shorter.
No scar crossed his eyebrow.
But twenty years earlier, in poor light, to someone who had not seen Michael recently?
Daniel could have believed it.
Robert stood.
His eyes went immediately to Sophie.
“Well.”
She disliked him at once.
Not because of anything dramatic.
Because he looked pleased.
“Sit down,” she said.
His eyebrows rose.
Michael sat opposite him.
“Why did you meet Daniel?”
Robert looked at his brother.
“Twenty years and that’s hello?”
“Why?”
Robert stirred his coffee.
“He wanted information.”
“You pretended to be me.”
“He assumed.”
“You let him.”
“Yes.”
Sophie put Daniel’s letter on the table.
Robert looked at it.
His expression changed.
“You have that.”
“What did you tell him?”
Robert looked at Sophie.
“The truth.”
“Which truth?”
“That your mother lied.”
Michael leaned forward.
“Careful.”
Robert smiled.
“There he is.”
Sophie did not move.
“What did she lie about?”
Robert looked at Michael.
“Tell her.”
“Tell her what?”
“You still don’t know?”
Michael's face tightened.
Robert leaned back.
“You spent twenty-five years thinking Margaret left because you hit her.”
“She did.”
“No.”
Sophie watched Michael.
His anger came slowly.
“That was enough.”
“Apparently not.”
“Robert.”
Robert looked at Sophie.
“She left because your father found out what Michael had done with the company.”
Sophie frowned.
“We know about the fraud.”
“No, you know my fraud.”
Michael went still.
Robert smiled without pleasure.
“He took money too.”
“How much?” Sophie asked.
Michael did not answer.
Robert did.
“Seventy-eight thousand dollars.”
Sophie looked at Michael.
“Is that true?”
He stared at his brother.
“Michael.”
“Yes.”
The coffee shop continued around them.
A blender screamed behind the counter.
Someone laughed near the window.
A delivery driver came in carrying a box.
Sophie hated the normality of it.
“What did you do with it?”
Michael rubbed his palms together.
“Paid debts.”
“What debts?”
“Gambling.”
Ethan muttered, “Jesus.”
Michael looked at Sophie.
“I stopped.”
“When?”
“After your mother left.”
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
Robert leaned forward.
“Your mother threatened to report him.”
Michael looked at him.
“She did report me.”
“Eventually.”
Sophie turned to Robert.
“What did you tell Dad?”
“That Michael had stolen money and that Margaret knew.”
“That’s why Dad wrote you were lying?”
Robert smiled.
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I told him Michael had come back.”
Michael frowned.
“What?”
“I told Daniel you had been watching the family again.”
“I hadn’t.”
“I know.”
Michael stood.
Ethan stood too.
“Sit down,” Sophie said.
Neither did.
She looked at Ethan.
“You too.”
He sat.
Michael followed.
Sophie faced Robert.
“Why?”
Robert looked out the window.
“For a long time I blamed him.”
“For cooperating?”
“For everything.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“No.”
Robert took a sip of coffee.
“I wanted Daniel afraid.”
“Why?”
“Because he came looking for old records. He was talking to people. I had rebuilt my life.”
“You thought he would expose you?”
“I thought he would expose all of us.”
Sophie looked at Michael.
“Was there more?”
Robert laughed.
“There’s always more.”
Michael said, “Enough.”
“No, Mike. You don’t get enough.”
Robert looked at Sophie.
“Your father—Daniel—thought Michael might have money hidden from the company.”
“Did he?”
Michael shook his head.
“Not anymore.”
Robert said, “That’s what he told investigators too.”
Michael ignored him.
“I paid restitution. I sold everything I had.”
“Not everything.”
Michael stared.
Robert smiled.
And Sophie understood.
“The locket.”
Both brothers looked at her.
She opened her purse.
The silver locket lay inside.
Michael's expression changed.
“Where did Margaret get that?”
Sophie closed the purse.
“Why?”
“Because it wasn’t hers.”
“Whose was it?”
“My mother’s.”
Robert stopped smiling.
Sophie felt the story shift again.
Michael looked at his brother.
“Dad gave it to me.”
Robert's voice became cold.
“Dad gave it to us.”
“You never cared about it.”
“You don’t know what I cared about.”
Sophie looked between them.
“What is inside besides the photograph?”
“Nothing,” Michael said.
Robert looked at him.
Then at Sophie.
“Open the back.”
She did not move.
“What?”
“There’s a second compartment.”
Michael stared.
“No, there isn’t.”
Robert laughed softly.
“Of course you didn’t know.”
Sophie took out the locket.
There was the photograph.
She examined the rim.
May you like
A tiny seam ran behind the picture.
Her thumbnail found a catch.
