Chapter 2
I thought I had misunderstood her.
“What?”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“Rebecca, enough.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Of course you’d say that.”
Emma stood frozen beside the table.
Customers had started whispering again.
Kevin stepped closer to me.
“Maya, if you want to go to the office—”
“No.”
My voice came out stronger than I felt.
I looked at Rebecca.
“My mother was thrown out?”
Thomas shook his head.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“That sounds like a yes.”
“Maya—”
I stared at him.
I had never told him my name.
He realized it too.
A strange silence passed between us.
“How do you know my name?”
Thomas looked toward my name tag.
“Maya Carter.”
Right.
I almost laughed from nerves.
My brain was barely working.
Rebecca pulled on her coat.
“Ask him why.”
Thomas stepped between her and the aisle.
“You have done enough damage tonight.”
“I have?”
Her voice rose.
“You want to pretend you’re the wounded father? Go ahead. You’ve been doing that for twenty-two years.”
Emma grabbed her mother’s arm.
“Mom, stop.”
Rebecca turned toward her.
“No. You wanted to know why I said your grandfather was dead? Because as far as I was concerned, he was.”
Thomas flinched.
Emma did too.
Rebecca pointed at me.
“And now he sees Sarah’s daughter and suddenly he gets another chance to play loving father.”
“I searched for Sarah.”
“After you destroyed her.”
“I made mistakes.”
“You chose the company over your daughter.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened.
“That is not what happened.”
“Then tell Maya.”
He didn’t.
That frightened me more than Rebecca’s anger.
I looked at him.
“Tell me.”
Thomas’s eyes dropped.
The powerful businessman from magazine covers suddenly looked like an exhausted old man.
“Not here.”
Rebecca laughed.
“Funny. Five minutes ago, you wanted everything said here.”
Thomas ignored her.
“Maya, please. Let me explain somewhere private.”
I folded my arms.
“I’ve spent twelve years not knowing I had a grandfather.”
His eyes filled with pain.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t know.”
My voice cracked.
“I buried my mother when I was sixteen. I signed papers alone because there was no family. I moved into my friend’s parents’ basement because there was no family. I worked two jobs through community college because there was no family.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Every word seemed to hit him.
“And now you’re telling me there was family?”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
Rebecca scoffed.
I turned toward her.
“What?”
She looked at Thomas.
“Tell her.”
“Rebecca.”
“Tell her you knew Sarah had a child.”
My heart stopped.
Thomas stared at her.
Emma whispered, “Grandpa?”
I looked at Thomas.
“Did you?”
His silence answered first.
Then he said, “Yes.”
I felt the floor tilt beneath me.
“You knew.”
“I knew Sarah had a daughter.”
“You knew I existed.”
“Yes.”
“And you still never found me?”
“I tried.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No, you hired people.”
Thomas snapped toward her.
“I spent years looking.”
“You spent money looking. You never went yourself.”
“I went to every address we found.”
“After she disappeared.”
Their argument became distant noise.
All I could hear was my own heartbeat.
I remembered birthdays with just my mother and me.
Christmas dinners with frozen lasagna.
School forms where I left the emergency contact line blank.
The hospital the night she died.
A nurse asking if there was anyone to call.
I had said no.
I had been wrong.
There had been people.
Rich people.
Powerful people.
People living less than an hour away.
I looked at Rebecca.
“Did you know about me?”
She hesitated.
That was enough.
“Oh my God.”
“Maya—”
“You knew too?”
“I knew Sarah was pregnant when she left.”
“When she was thrown out.”
Rebecca looked at Thomas.
“Yes.”
I laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“And neither of you found me.”
Rebecca’s anger faltered.
“I didn’t know where Sarah went.”
“But you knew I existed.”
“Yes.”
Emma stepped away from her mother.
“You told me you were an only child.”
Rebecca looked at her daughter.
“Emma, this is complicated.”
“That’s what you say every time you lie.”
Rebecca’s face changed.
“Excuse me?”
“You said Grandpa died before I was born.”
“Emma.”
“You said you had no sister.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
Rebecca opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Thomas looked at me.
“Maya, let me take you home.”
“I have three hours left on my shift.”
Kevin stepped forward.
“No, you don’t.”
I looked at him.
He shook his head gently.
“Go.”
“I need the money.”
Thomas immediately reached for his wallet.
I stared at him.
He froze.
Then slowly put it away.
That small movement hurt more than I expected.
“I don’t want your money,” I said.
“I wasn’t trying to insult you.”
“You don’t know me well enough to know what insults me.”
He nodded.
“You’re right.”
Rebecca looked impatient.
“This has gone far enough.”
I turned toward her.
“You started this.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Excuse me?”
“You threw food on the floor because dinner was late.”
“That has nothing to do with our family.”
“It tells me a lot about you.”
Emma looked down, hiding what might have been a smile.
Rebecca noticed.
“Emma, we’re leaving.”
“I’m staying.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I want to talk to Grandpa.”
Rebecca grabbed Emma’s wrist.
Thomas moved immediately.
“Take your hand off her.”
Rebecca released her.
“I’m her mother.”
“And she’s not property.”
Rebecca looked like she wanted to slap him.
Instead, she grabbed her purse.
“Fine.”
She looked at Emma.
“When you’re done enjoying the family reunion, call me.”
Then she looked at me.
Her expression was unreadable.
“You want the truth about your mother?”
I didn’t answer.
She stepped closer.
“Don’t let him be the only person who tells it.”
Then she left.
The front door slammed behind her.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Emma sat back down.
Her eyes were red.
“I’m sorry.”
I stared at her.
“For what?”
“My mom.”
I almost laughed.
“Apparently she’s my aunt.”
Emma gave a shaky little smile.
“So that makes us…”
“Cousins.”
Neither of us knew what to do with that.
Thomas looked toward Kevin.
“Can we use the private dining room?”
Kevin nodded instantly.
“Of course, Mr. Collins.”
Thomas winced at the formality.
Then he looked at me.
“Please.”
I wanted to say no.
I wanted to walk out the back door, go to my apartment, lock myself inside, and pretend none of this had happened.
But my mother had been dead for twelve years.
For twelve years, questions had followed me.
Why did she never talk about her childhood?
Why did she panic whenever Boston society magazines arrived at the dentist’s office?
Why had she once changed the channel when Thomas Collins appeared on television?
Why had she cried when I asked whether my father knew about me?
I had thought those questions were buried with her.
Now they were sitting ten feet away.
So I followed Thomas into the private dining room.
Emma came too.
Kevin closed the door behind us.
Thomas sat across from me.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then he placed the old photograph on the table.
It showed two teenage girls standing beside him.
Sarah was maybe seventeen.
Rebecca looked around fifteen.
They were laughing.
Actually laughing.
Not posing.
I touched the corner of the picture.
“I’ve never seen her this young.”
Thomas’s voice softened.
“She was always laughing.”
My throat tightened.
“She still laughed.”
He looked at me.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly.
“I’m glad.”
Emma leaned closer to the picture.
“She looks like Maya.”
Thomas gave a sad smile.
“She does.”
I pulled my hand away.
“Tell me why she left.”
Thomas looked down at the photograph.
Then he said, “Your mother fell in love with someone I didn’t approve of.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“Who was he?”
Thomas inhaled.
“Daniel Carter.”
I had never heard the name spoken.
My mother had only told me that my father was gone.
Not dead.
Gone.
“What happened to him?”
Thomas looked at me.
“That is where this story becomes difficult.”
“Try me.”
He folded his hands.
“Daniel worked for me.”
“In the restaurants?”
“In accounting.”
I waited.
Thomas continued.
“He was smart. Ambitious. Charming.”
“Sounds terrible.”
Emma almost smiled.
Thomas didn’t.
“I believed he was stealing from the company.”
I stared at him.
“Was he?”
“I thought so.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Thomas looked away.
Emma whispered, “Grandpa.”
Finally, Thomas said, “I don’t know.”
I felt anger rising.
“You destroyed your daughter’s relationship over something you don’t even know was true?”
“I had evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Financial records. Missing money. Transfers made under his access credentials.”
“And my mother believed him?”
“Yes.”
“So what did you do?”
Thomas’s eyes became distant.
“I told Sarah that if she stayed with Daniel, she could no longer work for the company.”
Rebecca’s words echoed in my head.
Thrown out.
“That’s all?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
I leaned forward.
“That’s all?”
“No.”
The room felt smaller.
“What else?”
“I told her she could not live in my house while bringing someone I believed was stealing from our family into it.”
“So you kicked her out.”
“I gave her a choice.”
“That is kicking her out.”
He accepted that without arguing.
Emma stared at him.
“How old was she?”
“Twenty.”
I sat back.
My mother had been twenty.
Pregnant.
Scared.
And her father had told her to choose.
“What happened next?”
“She chose Daniel.”
“And then?”
“They disappeared.”
“Together?”
Thomas hesitated.
“At first.”
My stomach tightened.
“At first?”
Thomas opened his mouth.
But before he could answer, Emma’s phone started vibrating.
She looked at the screen.
“Mom.”
She silenced it.
A second later, it rang again.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I stared at it.
A text appeared.
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOUR MOTHER DID.
Another message came before I could breathe.
ASK THOMAS WHO REALLY STOLE THE MONEY.
I looked at Thomas.
His face changed when he saw mine.
“What is it?”
I turned the phone toward him.
He read the message.
And every bit of color disappeared from his face.
That was when I understood.
May you like
Rebecca wasn’t just angry about the past.
She knew something Thomas didn’t want me to know.
