Chapter 13 - Bloodlines and Other Lies
By sunset, the Vanderpool name was everywhere.
Not in the society pages.
Not beneath photographs of charity luncheons and museum galas.
In headlines.
Footage of Celeste forcing Fay to kneel spread faster than anyone could contain. The kidnapping allegation followed. Then the monastery documents. Then the birth certificate showing Marguerite Delacroix's connection to the Vanderpool family.
People who had toasted Celeste 2 nights earlier now rushed to explain they had always found her cold.
Fay watched none of it.
She sat in a private room at Saint Catherine's Hospital while a doctor examined Josie.
No concussion.
No broken bones.
Mild dehydration.
Bruising at the wrists.
The bruises made Fay want to tear the world apart with her bare hands.
Instead, she held Josie's paper cup while her daughter drank apple juice through a straw.
Rafferty waited outside the room.
Fay had asked him to.
He obeyed without argument.
That mattered.
When the doctor left, Josie climbed into Fay's lap despite being too big for it. Fay held her and rocked.
After a while, Josie signed, Is the scary lady gone?
Fay swallowed.
Yes.
Josie considered.
Then signed, The man with gray eyes talks funny.
Fay almost laughed.
Because he signs badly?
Josie nodded seriously.
Fay kissed her forehead.
He is learning.
Josie looked toward the door.
He found me.
Fay's chest tightened.
Yes.
Can he come in?
Fay hesitated only a second.
Then she opened the door.
Rafferty stood immediately.
He looked too large for the hospital hallway, too controlled for its fluorescent exhaustion.
But when Josie waved him inside, something in his face softened so completely that Fay had to look away.
Rafferty entered and stopped several feet from the bed.
Josie signed something too fast for him to catch.
Fay translated. "She says thank you."
Rafferty's throat moved.
He signed slowly: You are brave.
Josie tilted her head.
Then signed to Fay: Tell him his fingers are wrong.
Fay laughed before she could stop herself.
Rafferty looked at her.
The sound seemed to strike him almost physically.
"What?"
"She says your fingers are wrong."
Rafferty looked at his own hands as if they had betrayed him.
"They have been useful for other things."
"Apparently not grammar."
Josie giggled because laughter needed no perfect hearing.
For one suspended moment, the hospital room became warm.
Then Silvano appeared in the doorway.
"We found why Everett cared about Marguerite."
Fay's smile vanished.
Rafferty looked to her for permission.
She nodded.
Silvano entered with a folder.
"Amelie Vanderpool gave birth at 18. Everett's father forced the child into informal adoption to avoid scandal. That child was Marguerite. Everett knew. When Marguerite came back to New Orleans as an adult, she tried to claim family medical history for Fay after Fay became sick as a child."
Fay frowned.
"I had pneumonia."
"Everett refused and threatened her. He did not want proof of Amelie's child entering legal records. Later, after Amelie died, her trust should have passed partly through Marguerite."
"Money," Fay whispered.
Silvano nodded.
"A great deal of it."
Fay looked down at Josie.
Her mother's whole life had been squeezed by a secret built to protect people who already had everything.
Rafferty said quietly, "You are Amelie Vanderpool's granddaughter."
Fay's answer was immediate.
"No."
Rafferty waited.
"I am Marguerite Delacroix's daughter."
Something like pride entered his face.
"Yes."
Fay looked toward the hospital window, where New Orleans glittered beyond the glass.
"But if the Vanderpools stole from my mother?"
May you like
Rafferty understood.
"Then we take it back."
