Chapter 6 - The Name Behind the Door
Mrs. Torres looked frightened when I caught up with her near the parking lot.
“Eli came here three times asking for help,” she whispered. “He carried an envelope from June. It had your mother's name on it. Hale took it before I could read more.”
“Why would June write to Vivian?”
“She said the charity fund had promised emergency housing.”
I called Naomi. She asked me not to confront anyone about confidential files yet. Preserve the note, she said. Write down what Mrs. Torres remembered. A child might depend on us getting this right.
That evening Lily sat at the kitchen table, drawing a house with two front doors. She had heard Daniel and me talking behind the pantry door.
“Mom,” she asked, “is Eli my brother?”
I sat beside her. “I believe he is.”
“Then why doesn't he live with us?”
“Because I made a very difficult decision before you were born. And afterward some awful things happened that I didn't know about.”
She erased one door. “Maybe we should make room.”
I wanted to tell her yes. Instead I said, “First we have to make sure he's safe.”
My mother called while Lily was brushing her teeth. She demanded I attend the upcoming charity dinner and smile as if nothing had changed.
“You have no idea how much damage one accusation can do,” she warned.
“I'm not accusing you. I'm asking why you told my son I was dead.”
“He needed closure.”
“He needed the truth.”
“Truth never fed a child, Claire.”
After I hung up, an email arrived from an address I didn't recognize. It held one attachment: a scanned payment request from Horizon Family Services to the Westbridge Children's Fund.
May you like
The line item said EMERGENCY BED - E. GRANT. The date was four weeks earlier.
It had been billed on a night Eli later told Amanda he'd slept beneath a highway overpass.
