I looked at her. “What do you mean?” She hugged her rabbit. “Other kids have aunts and uncles and cousins. I love living with you, but sometimes I wish we had more people.” I pulled her close. “I know, darling.” She leaned against my shoulder. “Maybe someday?” I didn’t answer. Instead, I looked toward the velvet pouch.
For the first time, I wondered whether keeping Ellie away from Claire’s relatives would protect her or deprive her of something she’d been missing. But I refused to expose her to a man who had rejected her mother without first learning the truth. So I decided to meet him alone. *** Later that morning, my phone rang. The number was unfamiliar. “Hello?” “Is this Margaret?” “Yes.”
“My name is Meredith. We met at Walmart yesterday.” I sat up straighter. “What do you want?” “Please, before you make any decisions, I need to explain something.” “Your brother already came here.” “I know.” “Was he lying to me?” “Not exactly. But Nathan doesn’t know everything.” I gripped the phone. “Then tell me what he left out.” “I’d rather speak in person. I’m at St. Luke’s Hospital.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
Meredith hesitated.
“You shouldn’t trust me yet. But there’s something involving Claire and your son that I think you deserve to know.”
My heart began pounding.
“My son?”
“Yes.”
I arranged for my neighbor, Pat, to watch Ellie.
Then I drove to the hospital.
Meredith was sitting alone in the cafeteria, staring at an untouched cup of coffee.
She looked exhausted.
When she saw me, she stood immediately.
“Thank you for coming.”
I didn’t sit.
“Have you been watching my granddaughter?”
Her expression changed.
Finally, she nodded.
“For three days.”
I felt my stomach twist.
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to approach you, but I couldn’t find the courage.”
I pulled out a chair.
“Tell me everything.”
Meredith explained that she’d been preparing to introduce herself to us in Walmart.
But just as she approached the candy aisle, she noticed a man standing near the entrance.
Their father’s driver.
Frank.
“He was there to bring me home,” she explained.
“Why?”
“Dad realized I’d taken the ring. He knew I was going to find Ellie.”
“So he sent someone to stop you?”
“Yes.”
Meredith’s eyes filled.
“I panicked. I hid the ring behind some candy before Frank could see it. He made me leave, but I convinced him to let me go back inside for my purse.”
“And that’s when Ellie found it?”
She nodded.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
I remembered how frightened she’d looked when her phone rang.
“That call you received?”
“My father. He was furious.”
I folded my arms.
“You told Ellie she’d saved your life.”
Meredith wiped her eyes.
“She saved the one thing my mother wanted Claire’s child to have.”
I looked away.
Meredith continued.
“I already failed Claire once. I couldn’t bear failing her daughter too.”
“What do you mean?”
“A year before Claire died, she wrote me a letter. She wanted to reconnect.”
“And?”
“I never answered.”
“Why not?”
Meredith stared at her coffee.
“Dad threatened to cut off anyone who contacted her. Financial support, jobs in the family company, even money for my children’s education.”
I felt a surge of anger.
“So you chose your father’s money over your own sister.”
Her face crumpled.
“Yes,” she whispered. “And I’ve regretted it ever since.”
For several moments, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had been haunting me.
“What did Claire do that was so unforgivable?”
Meredith looked up.
“She married Daniel.”
I stared at her.
“My son?”
“Our father wanted Claire to marry someone wealthy and influential. Daniel wasn’t from that world.”
My jaw tightened.
“Daniel worked hard every day.”
“I know.”
“He repaired school buses. He was honest, responsible, and devoted to his family.”
Meredith nodded.
“Claire told me that in her letter.”
I felt tears burning behind my eyes.
“Your father rejected his daughter because she married a mechanic?”
“He said Daniel had no future. He insulted him right in front of her.”
I pushed my chair back.
“My son was worth more than all your father’s money.”
“I believe you.”
Meredith hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“When I finally told Dad that Claire had died, he said something I haven’t been able to forget.”
“What did he say?”
“Two words. ‘I know.’”
I went cold.
“He knew?”
Meredith nodded.
“He already knew.”
I thought about the funeral.
Eleven people had attended.
Not one member of Claire’s family.
I had assumed they didn’t know.
But now I understood that at least one of them had.
“Where is your father?” I asked.
Meredith looked nervous.
“Margaret—”
“Where?”
“Room 412.”
I stood.
“Stay here.”
***
The man lying in the hospital bed looked nothing like the powerful businessman I’d imagined.
He was thin and pale, with silver hair and an oxygen tube beneath his nose.
His name was Richard.
He turned his head when I entered.
For a moment, he stared at me.
Then recognition appeared in his eyes.
“You’re Daniel’s mother.”
“Yes.”
He stiffened.
“My children had no business involving you. If you’re here looking for money, you can leave.”
I nearly laughed.
“Money?”
I reached into my purse and pulled out the velvet pouch.
Then I dropped it onto his blanket.
“You can choke on that diamond ring,” I said. “But you will never see Ellie if you think you can treat her the way you treated her mother.”
Richard looked at the pouch but didn’t touch it.
I stepped closer.
“Your daughter and my son died in a car accident three years ago. You didn’t even come to their funeral.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
“You knew they were dead?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He swallowed.
“The police contacted me the next morning.”
I frowned.
“Why would they call you?”
Richard looked toward the window.
“Because I was the last person Claire tried to contact.”
I froze.
“She called you?”
He nodded.
“She left me a voicemail that afternoon.”
“What did she say?”
His voice shook as he repeated the message.
“She said they would be passing through Riverton around nine that evening. She wanted me to meet my granddaughter.”
My knees suddenly felt weak.
I remembered that night.
Daniel and Claire had left Ellie with me, saying they were going out together.
They never returned.
“They told me they were having a date night,” I whispered.
Richard shook his head.
“They weren’t going on a date.”
I stared at him.
“Then where were they going?”
“They were coming to see me.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
“Did you see them?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
He explained that Claire and Daniel had arrived at his house just as promised.
He’d watched them through the doorbell camera.
Claire rang the bell twice.
Daniel stood beside her, holding her hand.
They waited.
My voice trembled.
“And what did you do?”
Richard’s face crumpled.
“I stood inside.”
I felt my blood turn cold.
“Inside where?”
“Behind the front door.”
“You mean they were standing outside, and you were home?”
He nodded slowly.
“My hand was on the lock.”
I stared at him.
“Then why didn’t you open it?”
Richard began to cry.
“Because I was too proud.”
His voice broke.
“I’d told Claire never to come back. I couldn’t bring myself to admit I was wrong.”
I stepped away from the bed.
For a moment, the hospital room seemed to spin.
My son and daughter-in-law had driven ninety miles hoping to mend a broken relationship.
And Richard had left them standing outside.
“They died on the road that night,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“They never made it home.”
He covered his face.
“If I’d opened the door, maybe they would still be alive.”
I looked at him through my tears.
There was no way to know whether opening that door would have changed what happened.
But his rejection had been real.
And so was the damage it caused.
“Is that why you stayed away from their funeral?” I asked.
Richard nodded.
“I couldn’t face you. I couldn’t face Claire’s grave.”
“And what about Ellie?”
He went silent.
I moved closer.
“Did you know where she was?”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“For three years?”
He nodded again.
“I drove past your house.”
My heart pounded.
“What?”
“Three times.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Richard looked ashamed.
“I saw the roof needed repairs. Once, I saw Ellie outside wearing a coat that looked too small.”
I gripped the bedrail.
“You saw her?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t stop?”
He shook his head.
“I didn’t know what to say.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“You could have said, ‘I’m your grandfather.’”
He began crying again.
“I couldn’t.”
“Then why did you send someone after Meredith when she tried to give Ellie the ring?”
His voice was barely audible.
“Because I knew you’d eventually learn what happened. I was afraid you’d blame me.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“You didn’t cause the crash,” I said quietly. “But you did leave your daughter outside your house when she came asking for a second chance.”
Richard turned his face away.
I continued.
“For three years, Ellie has believed she had no one left except me.”
He whispered, “I wanted to know her.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“I was ashamed.”
“That didn’t stop you from watching her from your car.”
He said nothing.
I thought about Ellie drawing pictures of her parents in heaven.
