Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Knew the Blanket
I did not remember leaving the stage.
I remembered flashes.
Dr. Mercer taking the microphone away from a student who was trying to livestream everything.
Security chasing Marlene into the lobby.
Vanessa shouting that her mother had done nothing wrong.
Caleb pushing past two officers and getting pinned against a row of folding chairs.
Noah crying.
And Eleanor Voss gripping my wrist with cold fingers.
“Please,” she said. “Do not let anyone take that child until you speak with me.”
By the time I reached the faculty lounge behind the auditorium, my graduation gown felt like a costume I had accidentally stolen from someone else’s life.
Noah had settled after I fed him a bottle. He slept in a portable bassinet on the conference table while Dr. Mercer, Eleanor, a campus attorney named Leah Grant, and Detective Owen Ruiz sat around me.
“Start with the blanket,” Ruiz said.
Eleanor stared at the embroidered star.
“My daughter Emily used that pattern on everything she made for babies. Blankets, hats, burp cloths. She volunteered with a women’s shelter for years.”
“Is Emily Noah’s mother?” I asked.
Eleanor shook her head quickly.
“No. Emily died eight years ago.”
I looked at Ruiz.
He made a note.
“Then how did the blanket get to the clinic?”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“Emily had a daughter.”
“A granddaughter?”
“Yes. Lily.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“Where is she?”
Eleanor pressed her lips together.
“She disappeared two years ago.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“Disappeared how?”
“She left home after a fight. She was twenty. Angry. Hurt. Convinced everyone had lied to her.”
“About what?”
Eleanor hesitated.
The attorney glanced at her.
Ruiz noticed.
“Mrs. Voss, if this child could be your great-grandson, now is not the time to protect anyone.”
Eleanor looked at me.
“Lily learned that the man who raised her was not her biological father.”
My chest tightened for a reason I did not understand yet.
“Who was?”
“I never knew for certain.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is the truth.”
Ruiz leaned back.
“Did Lily ever mention a baby?”
“No.”
“Did she have contact with St. Catherine’s?”
Eleanor’s face changed.
“Her mother died there.”
I looked at the blanket again.
The clinic had not just been where Noah was abandoned.
It was where his grandmother had died years earlier.
Coincidence was beginning to feel like a word people used when they were afraid of the alternative.
The door opened.
A security officer stepped inside.
“Detective, we couldn’t locate Marlene Hayes. She left through the loading entrance before we got there.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
“Someone triggered the rear fire door.”
Caleb.
The thought came instantly.
Ruiz must have had the same thought because he stood.
“Where is Rourke?”
“Still with campus security.”
“Keep him separated from Vanessa Hale.”
Vanessa.
I closed my eyes.
Marlene had always introduced Vanessa as my cousin, although she had spent most of our childhood correcting anyone who called us sisters.
“She is my daughter,” Marlene would say. “Clara is my niece.”
A small distinction sharpened into a weapon.
The door opened again.
This time Vanessa walked in.
Two security officers followed her.
Her mascara was streaked. The white honor stole was gone.
“I need to talk to Clara.”
“No,” I said.
Her eyes flashed.
“Please.”
I had never heard Vanessa use that word with me.
Ruiz said, “You’re not under arrest. Yet. But anything you say may become part of an investigation.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Great. Perfect. Mom runs, Caleb turns into an idiot, and suddenly everybody acts like I’m running the mob.”
“You forged my complaint,” I said.
Her face went still.
“I didn’t write it.”
“You signed it.”
“I signed what Caleb gave me.”
“You told faculty I cheated.”
“He said there was proof.”
“You wore my honor stole.”
Her chin lifted automatically, the old Vanessa returning for half a second.
Then she looked at Noah.
Her bravado collapsed.
“Clara, Mom knew about the baby.”
Every person in the room went silent.
“What?”
“She knew.”
“Before the graduation?”
“Before you found him.”
I stood so fast my chair scraped across the floor.
“That’s impossible.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Two months ago I heard her arguing with someone on the phone. She kept saying, ‘The girl can’t come back here.’ Then she said something about a baby.”
Ruiz moved closer.
“What exactly did she say?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“She said, ‘If Lily shows up with that child, everything falls apart.’”
Eleanor made a sound like the air had been knocked out of her.
I stared at Vanessa.
“You knew Lily’s name?”
“I didn’t know who she was.”
“You heard my aunt talking about Lily two months ago and never thought to mention it?”
Vanessa snapped, “Mention it to who? You? We weren’t exactly having sleepovers.”
“No, you were busy getting me suspended.”
“I told you, Caleb handled that.”
“Stop blaming Caleb for everything.”
Her face twisted.
“You think I wanted any of this?”
“Yes.”
She flinched.
For the first time in my life, I realized Vanessa was not offended.
She was afraid.
Ruiz asked, “Where would your mother go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does she have another house? Friends? Storage units?”
Vanessa rubbed her arms.
“She has a cabin.”
I stared.
“What cabin?”
“In Blackwater County. Grandpa left it to her.”
“We don’t have a cabin.”
Vanessa gave me a strange look.
“You don’t.”
That hurt more than it should have.
Marlene had spent years telling me every dollar she used on me was a sacrifice. Meanwhile she had hidden property from me.
Ruiz turned to the security officer.
“Get an address.”
Vanessa reached for my hand.
I pulled away.
“There’s more,” she whispered.
“Of course there is.”
“The night you brought Noah home, Mom went into your room.”
I felt cold.
“What did she do?”
“I don’t know. She was in there for maybe ten minutes.”
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Because she was looking for something.”
“What?”
“She said your parents left a box.”
My breath caught.
“My parents?”
Vanessa nodded.
“After she came out, she had an envelope in her hand. She looked at me and said, ‘If Clara ever finds this, we lose everything.’”
The bassinet behind us creaked softly as Noah moved in his sleep.
Eleanor stared at me.
Ruiz stared at Vanessa.
I only had one thought.
May you like
I had lived in Marlene’s house for sixteen years.
And all that time, something my dead parents had left for me had been hidden under the same roof.
