Chapter 16 - What Rebecca Remembered
The revelation about Edward Wells unlocked something in Rebecca.
Not a full memory.
A sound.
A voice.
They were back at the hotel when she suddenly dropped a glass in the sink.
Nathan turned.
"Rebecca?"
She was staring at nothing.
"I heard him."
"Who?"
"The night of the crash."
She gripped the counter.
"I remember waking for a second in the ambulance. Pruitt was there. Another man was talking. I couldn't see his face. He said, 'Margaret built the door. Thomas tried to close it. Graham only learned how to charge admission.'"
Nathan felt cold.
"Edward."
"Maybe."
She closed her eyes.
"Then he said something about a baby."
"Lucy?"
Rebecca nodded.
"He said, 'The child fixes the voting problem.'"
Nathan's anger sharpened.
Lucy had been a line on a plan before she had a name.
Rebecca looked at him.
"Nathan, I need you to understand something."
"What?"
"I didn't stay away because I stopped loving you."
He looked down.
"I know."
"No. I need to say it. I thought you had signed those papers. I thought if I contacted you, you'd take Lucy. Every birthday, every Christmas, every time she asked why she didn't have a dad, I had to choose between telling her the truth and risking that I had misunderstood nothing."
Nathan swallowed.
"And I spent seven years being angry at a dead woman for leaving me."
Rebecca's eyes filled.
"I'm sorry."
"So am I."
They stood in the quiet kitchen, close enough to remember what they had been and far enough to know they could not simply become it again.
Nathan reached for her hand.
"I don't expect my marriage back."
Rebecca's fingers closed around his.
"Good."
He almost smiled.
"Still direct."
"You used to like that."
"I still do."
A knock interrupted them.
Sarah entered carrying a courier envelope.
"This was delivered to the temporary foundation office. No return address."
Inside was a single photograph.
Edward Wells, older, standing outside Bell Street Books six months earlier.
Alive.
On the back, one sentence was handwritten.
YOU FOUND REBECCA BECAUSE I ALLOWED IT.
Nathan stared at the message.
Sarah pulled out a second sheet.
A list of dates.
The day Nathan chose the park route.
The day Lucy's neighbor was asked to watch her.
The day Rebecca was scheduled for the bookstore shift.
Even the hour Nathan's wallet fell from his pocket.
Rebecca looked at him.
"That can't be planned."
Nathan turned the photograph over again.
Taped beneath it was a tiny metal clip.
A cut seam from his wallet.
Someone had weakened the stitching before he entered the park.
The meeting with Lucy had not been chance.
It had been arranged.
---
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