Chapter 10

One month later, the DNA results came back. Grant was my son. There had been no doubt left, but seeing it on paper made me sit down on my kitchen floor and cry until my ribs hurt.

He came to my apartment that afternoon. It was small and cramped compared to the Calder estate, but he didn’t seem to notice. He sat at my table and drank coffee from a chipped mug.

“Vivian’s lawyer is trying to cut a deal,” he said. “She’ll plead guilty to kidnapping and falsifying records. She might serve ten years.”

“Does that make you happy?”

“No. But it makes me free.”

We sat in silence for a while. Then I took the joined locket from around my neck and set it on the table.

“Take it,” I said. “Both halves.”

He looked at me. “You’ve had this for twenty-six years.”

“It was never mine to keep. It was for you. From the beginning, it was for you.”

He picked up the locket. He traced the inscription with his thumb. “I don’t know what to call you.”

“You don’t have to call me anything. You can call me Nora. You can call me nothing. I just want you to know the truth.”

He nodded. Then he looked around my small kitchen, at the chipped mug, the faded curtains, the stack of bills on the counter. “Do you want to come to the city with me? I’m meeting Conrad for lunch. He wants to apologize. I told him it’s going to take a long time.”

“That’s up to you.”

“I know.” He paused. “But I’d like you there.”

I felt the tears coming again, but I held them back. “Then I’ll be there.”

He stood and put the locket around his neck. Both halves. Then he looked at me, and for the first time, something like hope flickered in his eyes.

“Stay for coffee?” I asked.

He smiled. It was small and uncertain, but it was real. “Yeah. I’ll stay.”