She had a phone number.”
“I agree.”
Something about the answer surprised me.
No excuses.
No grand defense.
Just agreement.
“Our lawyers should have done better,” he continued.
“I should have done better.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because at the time, reopening the Meridian seemed impossible, and the box felt like one more unfinished obligation belonging to my mother.”
He glanced toward Belle’s room.
“I have spent the last year learning that unfinished obligations don’t disappear because you stop looking at them.”
I didn’t know what that meant.
I also didn’t want to know.
Not that night.
“I’m going home.”
“All right.”
“You aren’t going to stop me?”
His eyebrows lifted.
“No.”
That answer irritated me more than it should have.
I walked away.
“Rue.”
I turned one last time.
“Thank you for Belle.”
His voice was quiet.
No power in it.
No expectation.
Just a father speaking to the woman who had stayed with his daughter on a freezing garage floor.
I nodded.
Then I left.
My best friend Tasha was sleeping on my couch when I got home.
Technically, it was my couch.
Technically, it was also where Tasha slept three nights a week because her boyfriend snored like industrial machinery.
She woke when I came through the door at 2:38 a.m.
She squinted at me.
“Why do you look like you’ve been hit by a very expensive truck?”
I dropped my purse.
“I met Harlan Voss.”
Tasha sat upright.
“You did what?”
“I found his daughter.”
She stared.
“In a parking garage.”
Her mouth opened.
“She’s fine.”
Her mouth closed.
“Probably.”
It opened again.
“Tasha, could you please make the face after I finish?”
She pressed both hands over her mouth.
I told her everything.
The garage.
Belle.
The SUVs.
The hospital.
June Callaway.
Eleanor Voss.
The box.
When I finished, Tasha remained quiet for a full ten seconds.
That might have been a personal record.
Then she said, “Your mother had a secret theater life.”
“Apparently.”
“With rich people.”
“Apparently.”
“And Harlan Voss has a mystery box with your name on it.”
“My mother’s name.”
“Same difference.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Tasha studied me.
