Chương 3
Daniel sat.
The chair gave a small plastic groan.
He stared at the closed curtain.
Rachel continued because stopping felt crueler.
“There was another letter from years later. You would have been six or seven.”
“Stop.”
She stopped.
He pressed his palms against his knees.
“Did you take them?”
“One.”
Daniel looked at the handbag.
Rachel nodded.
“It’s in there.”
He bent and opened the bag.
Rachel’s stomach tightened.
He removed her wallet, sunglasses, a packet of tissues, hand lotion, two receipts, the scarf she had stuffed inside before dinner.
Then he looked at her.
“It’s not.”
Rachel stared.
“What?”
“The letter.”
“It’s in the side pocket.”
He checked.
Nothing.
Rachel sat forward too quickly and pain ran through her hip.
“Daniel, it was there.”
He emptied the entire handbag onto the hospital chair.
No envelope.
For the first time since the fall, Daniel looked frightened.
“Who touched this?”
“Claire didn’t.”
“You told her not to.”
“Yes.”
“Emily?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom?”
Rachel looked at him.
Neither of them said anything.
A minute later Emily arrived.
She stood just inside the curtain, coat still on, hair slightly disordered from the wind.
Daniel held up the empty handbag.
“Did you touch this?”
Emily looked at Rachel first.
Then at him.
“No.”
“Did Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Emily.”
“I said I don’t know.”
“You were there.”
“So were you.”
“I was on the floor with Rachel.”
“And I was staring at Rachel because she fell down the stairs.”
Daniel stood.
Emily took a step backward.
Rachel said, “Stop.”
Both of them looked at her.
She pointed at the chair with her good hand.
“Sit down. Both of you.”
Neither moved.
“Please.”
Daniel sat first.
Emily sat on the edge of the second chair.
Rachel looked at her.
“What did you mean when you said she didn’t just hold my wrist?”
Emily’s throat moved.
Daniel said, “Tell us.”
Emily looked at him.
“She grabbed her.”
“We know that.”
“Not like...” Emily stopped. “Not like she was steadying her.”
Rachel waited.
Emily’s fingers had locked around the strap of her purse.
“She reached after Rachel,” she said. “Rachel was already turning away. Mom caught her wrist and pulled it back.”
Daniel’s eyes went to Rachel’s brace.
“How hard?”
“I don’t know.”
“Hard enough to make her fall?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were looking.”
“I saw maybe two seconds, Daniel.”
“But you said she didn’t just hold it.”
Emily stood again.
“Because she didn’t.”
Daniel got up too.
Rachel said his name.
He ignored her.
“Did Mom push her?”
“No.”
“Did she pull her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you say you didn’t know?”
“Because I don’t know if she meant for Rachel to fall.”
Daniel stared at his sister.
Emily stared back.
Something old moved between them. Something Rachel could not see but could feel.
Finally Daniel asked, “Why are you afraid of her?”
Emily’s eyes filled, but she did not cry.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Daniel.”
“You couldn’t even answer me in the house.”
“That wasn’t because I’m afraid of her.”
“Then what?”
Emily looked toward Rachel.
“I heard what Mom said.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Daniel’s voice lowered.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
Rachel watched him absorb the confirmation.
He sat again.
“What does she know?”
Emily looked confused.
“About Dad.”
Emily looked at the floor.
That was enough.
Daniel gave a short laugh.
It had no humor in it.
“You know.”
“No.”
“You know something.”
“I know they fought about something when we were kids.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“I don’t.”
“You just stood in my mother’s house while she told my wife the man who raised me wasn’t my father, and you didn’t look surprised.”
Emily flinched.
Rachel had noticed that too.
Emily looked toward the curtain as though considering escape.
Then she said, “I was twelve.”
Daniel’s face went blank.
Emily twisted the purse strap around her fingers.
“I heard them arguing in the garage. Mom and Dad. I wasn’t supposed to be home. Claire’s sister had driven me back because I forgot my dance shoes.”
“About me?”
“I didn’t know.”
“What did they say?”
“I heard Dad say, ‘You promised me we were never going to make him pay for what happened.’”
Daniel swallowed.
Emily continued.
“And Mom said, ‘He deserves to know where he came from.’ Dad said, ‘Not from him.’”
“From who?”
“I never heard a name.”
“Did you ask?”
“I was twelve.”
“Later.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Dad came inside and made grilled cheese.”
Daniel stared at her.
Emily’s voice broke slightly.
“That’s the truth. He came inside, saw me sitting there, and asked why I was home. Then he made grilled cheese. I decided it was some adult thing I didn’t understand.”
“And you never thought about it again?”
“Of course I thought about it again.”
“But you never asked.”
“No.”
Daniel turned away.
Emily looked at Rachel.
“I’m sorry.”
Rachel did not know which part she meant.
The fall.
The silence.
The secret.
Maybe all of it.
Daniel noticed a police officer outside the curtain before Rachel did.
The nurse had apparently made a report because an injury following unwanted physical contact inside a family home required questions. The officer was calm, middle-aged, and careful not to assume anything.
He spoke first with Rachel alone.
Daniel waited in the hall.
Rachel told him exactly what she remembered.
She did not call it a push.
She did not soften the grip.
She repeated Margaret’s sentence.
She described pulling away.
She described the fall.
When the officer asked whether she believed Margaret intended to make her fall, Rachel said, “I don’t know.”
He wrote that down.
When he asked whether she wanted the incident documented, she said yes.
That answer hurt Daniel more than she expected.
She saw it when he came back into the room.
“You made a report?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
He said it too quickly.
Rachel watched him.
“Are you angry?”
“No.”
“You are.”
“I’m not angry.”
May you like
“You are something.”
He sat down.
