Chapter 10
A year after the gala, Sarah took me to the Waldorf again.
I stopped outside the entrance.
“Do we have to go in?”
“No,” she said. “We can turn around.”
She was wearing the green dress she had repaired after the hospital. I wore new shoes and my locket on a strong chain. Evelyn waited inside for us.
The hotel was holding a smaller charity dinner for families who needed help with housing and medical bills. Sarah had helped plan it. She had insisted that the people receiving help be treated as guests, with their own seats and meals.
“I want to see what you made,” I told her.
We went inside together.
Luis recognized me before I recognized him. He was still working at the hotel, and he came over with a smile.
“Rosie. Would you like some bread?”
“Yes, please.”
He gave me a roll warm enough to steam when I broke it open.
I remembered how hungry I had been the first time I stood beneath those chandeliers. Sarah saw me looking at them.
“We can leave whenever you want,” she said.
“I know.”
That was why I could stay.
Evelyn came from across the room. She did not rush to hug me before I could decide. I stepped toward her, and she opened her arms.
“My beautiful granddaughter,” she said.
“You say that every time.”
“I’ve missed saying it for nine years. I have some catching up to do.”
Sarah smiled at us both.
At dinner, Evelyn spoke briefly. She thanked the people who had helped Sarah build the new program, especially the families who had told them what kind of help they actually needed.
She did not tell my story to the room. She had asked me first, and I had said I wanted it to stay mine.
When she sat down, Sarah squeezed her hand.
After dinner, we went to Evelyn’s apartment for cake. Mrs. Vega was already there, guarding the kitchen from Evelyn’s latest attempt to make frosting herself.
Marcus Bell, the attorney who had helped Sarah understand her father’s company, stopped by with a box of old photographs. Sarah had asked him to find them in storage.
We spread them across the table.
There was a picture of Sarah at nine.
“I’m the same age,” I said.
“You have better shoes,” Sarah replied.
“And a much louder opinion,” Evelyn added.
I leaned against her shoulder.
“That’s because people listen to me.”
“Yes,” she said. “They should have listened sooner.”
Sarah chose one photograph of her father holding her on his shoulders. She placed it beside a recent picture of the three of us in the garden.
“We need one with Mrs. Vega,” I said.
Mrs. Vega appeared in the doorway.
“You’re not leaving me out of a family picture.”
We took it right there, with Evelyn’s frosting bowl still on the counter. Luis had sent a bag of pastries with us, and one was in my hand when the camera flashed.
Later, Sarah and I took the subway home. Our apartment lights were on because Mrs. Vega had gone ahead to leave the cake in our refrigerator. The small kitchen was warm.
Sarah hung up our coats.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
“A little.”
I touched the locket at my throat.
“Mom, if you had known Grandma was looking for you, would you have gone back?”
Sarah thought about it.
“I might have called her. I would have wanted to choose when we met.”
“Do you wish everything had happened differently?”
“I wish I’d come home safely that night. I wish neither of us had been hurt.”
She knelt so our eyes met.
“But I’m glad we found out who was keeping us apart. I’m glad we got to decide for ourselves what happens now.”
I hugged her.
“Will we still live here?”
“As long as we want. This is our home.”
“And can Grandma visit tomorrow?”
“She already asked. Mrs. Vega told her to bring the good tea.”
I laughed.
That night, Sarah sat at the edge of my bed while I looked through the photographs we had brought home. She told me the names of people I had never met and stories about being a little girl in New York.
When she reached the picture of Evelyn holding her as a newborn, I opened my locket and showed her the tiny copy inside.
“She kept the bigger one all these years,” Sarah said.
“So did you.”
Sarah brushed my hair away from the birthmark beneath my ear.
May you like
“Yes,” she whispered. “I kept you close.”
I fell asleep with her beside me, certain she would still be there when I woke. In the morning, we would make breakfast in our own kitchen and set out an extra cup for my grandmother.
