Chapter 9 - THE ENVELOPE CLAIRE KEPT
Claire read the message and sat down.
Daniel felt an old reflex rise.
Suspicion.
The urge to demand an explanation before he offered trust.
He recognized it this time.
“Tell me when you’re ready,” he said.
She looked at him.
“Your father gave me an envelope.”
“When?”
“Two months before he died.”
“What was in it?”
“A check. Fifty thousand dollars.”
Rachel reached for a notebook.
Claire kept her eyes on Daniel.
“He said it was for Lily. He wanted me to open an account in my name and keep it separate.”
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he asked me not to. And because every conversation we had about money ended with you telling me I didn’t understand it.”
Daniel looked down.
Claire continued.
“I didn’t cash it.”
“Why not?”
“There was a note inside.”
Rachel asked, “Do you still have it?”
“In a box at my apartment.”
Ellis brought the box that afternoon, after Claire gave him the keys and exact location.
Inside were Lily’s hospital bracelet, birthday cards, and the envelope.
Daniel recognized his father’s handwriting again.
For what should have been yours long before now.
Forgive me for waiting.
Claire pushed it toward Reyes when she arrived.
“I thought he meant Daniel had been unfair about money.”
Reyes read the note.
“And now?”
“I think he recognized me.”
Daniel’s father had known Claire’s birth name.
He had seen her childhood photograph.
He had tried to give her money without saying why.
Every kind gesture Daniel remembered was acquiring a second meaning.
Reyes examined the check, then the envelope.
“There’s something written under the flap.”
Claire leaned forward.
A name.
A phone number.
Evelyn Price.
Daniel shook his head.
“I don’t know her.”
“I do,” Rachel said.
They all turned.
“She handled estate work for your father. Her name appears on an old filing, but she wasn’t the attorney who settled his estate.”
Reyes photographed the number.
“Let me contact her first.”
Outside, the afternoon light faded.
Lily wandered in carrying her bear.
“Are we going home?”
Claire opened her arms.
“Not to Daddy’s house tonight.”
“Because Vanessa’s there?”
“No, sweetheart.”
“Then why?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Lily looked from one adult to another.
“Did I make everybody leave?”
Claire pulled her close.
“No. You brought me back.”
Reyes stepped into the hallway to make the call.
When she returned, her expression had changed.
May you like
“Evelyn Price is alive,” she said.
“And she’s been waiting for someone to ask about Claire.”
