Chapter 7
The signature frightened me more than the first one.
I had signed thousands of documents over the years. The one on the school letter looked rushed and uneven. The signature on the guardianship papers had my familiar long stroke through the H.
For a few seconds, I wondered whether I had signed something without reading it.
Then I saw the date.
I had been in Boston that day.
Our attorney, Sarah Lin, sat across from me as I studied the copy.
“This appears to authorize Celeste to care for Lily if you’re unavailable,” she said. “It hasn’t been filed with a court. I want to establish exactly what she intended to do with it.”
“She knew Marcus was named in our existing documents.”
“She may have hoped people would accept this without checking.”
I traced the signature with my eyes.
“Could it be a copy of mine from another page?”
“That’s possible. The examiner will look at it.”
I remembered Celeste bringing me stacks of invitations and charity forms, placing little tabs wherever I needed to sign. Sometimes I signed while talking to Lily or answering a call.
I told Sarah.
“We’ll compare them,” she said. “Please don’t blame yourself for someone else using your trust.”
I wanted to believe her.
That afternoon, the officer called. The side-door code had been used by a small car captured on a neighbor’s driveway camera. The image did not clearly show the driver, but the time matched one of Nora’s visits from Celeste.
“I was away,” I said.
“We have your travel records.”
“Have you spoken to Celeste?”
“Yes. We’re following up on several points.”
She could not tell me more. I understood, though waiting felt like standing halfway down that dark stair again.
I took Lily to a counselor who worked with children after frightening events. She met Lily first and then asked me to join them.
Lily had drawn the hallway. In her picture, the hatch was small, but my hands were huge.
“What were you thinking when you heard the voice?” the counselor asked her.
“That she couldn’t get out.”
“And when your dad came?”
“That he might go down and not come back.”
I looked at Lily.
“You never told me that.”
“You were busy helping Nora.”
“I should have come back to you sooner.”
“You did come back.”
The counselor asked Lily what would help her feel safer at home. Lily thought about it.
“I want Daddy to tell me when he goes away for work,” she said. “Celeste used to tell me after he left.”
I had assumed Celeste told her before my trips. I turned to my daughter.
“I can tell you myself every time.”
“And I want Uncle Marcus to have my phone number in case you don’t answer.”
“He does.”
“I want to know he does.”
“We’ll call him together tonight.”
On the way home, I told Lily I had heard her. I also told her I would be working from home more often while we settled into a new routine.
“You don’t have to stay here every minute,” she said.
“I know.”
“I like when you make breakfast.”
“I can do that.”
“You burn toast.”
“Then I’ll practice.”
She laughed. It was the first easy laugh I had heard from her since the hallway.
The next morning, Marcus came over with Lena. We made breakfast together, and I burned only one piece of toast.
Afterward, Sarah arrived with news. The examiner had compared the guardianship signature with one from a charity form I had signed weeks earlier. The shapes lined up so closely that they appeared to come from the same image.
“Someone copied it,” Sarah said.
I felt sick.
“Will that be enough?”
“It’s one piece of evidence. We also have the messages, the storage unit, and Nora’s account.”
Lena, standing beside Marcus, asked, “What about the trust?”
“Celeste never gained authority over it,” Sarah said. “Ruth confirmed that. We’re making sure the school and any other organization that received her papers know they weren’t authorized.”
After Sarah left, Marcus walked with me to the garden.
“You let me handle some things after Amelia died,” he said. “I was glad to help. Celeste saw that you needed help too.”
“I should have asked what she was doing with it.”
“Yes,” he said. “You can ask now.”
He never tried to make me feel better by pretending I had made no mistakes. That was one reason I trusted him.
“I’m sorry I let her come between you and Lily,” I said.
“You didn’t keep us apart. Lena and I were here every Sunday.”
“Celeste told me you thought I was failing her.”
Marcus stopped walking.
“I never said that.”
“She said you were discussing whether Lily should stay with you for a while.”
“I suggested she could spend a weekend with us when you had that conference. Celeste told me you wanted her home.”
We stood among the roses Amelia had planted.
Celeste had carried one story to Marcus and another to me. I thought about all the conversations we could have had if we had called each other directly.
My phone rang.
It was Peter.
“Celeste just came to my apartment,” he said. “She wanted the spare key to the place out of town. I told her I gave it to the police.”
“Is she still there?”
“No. She left after saying Daniel would regret letting Nora back into Lily’s life.”
May you like
I looked toward the house, where my daughter was laughing with Lena.
I called the officer before I did anything else.
