Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN ON THE CERTIFICATE
Nora filed for an emergency protective order before sunrise.
Rachel did not ask for revenge.
She asked for space.
No unsupervised contact between Evelyn and Maddie.
Temporary exclusive possession of the townhouse.
A hearing on Grant's contact because he had struck Rachel while she held the child.
Rachel declined to speak.
Nora put the phone on speaker.
"Rachel."
"What?"
"I'm sorry."
Maddie was asleep beside her, one fist wrapped around the edge of the blanket.
Rachel kept her voice low.
"You hit me."
"I know."
"You didn't even look at her."
"I know."
"You said she wasn't yours."
Silence.
Grant finally said, "I was wrong."
"That's not the important part."
He understood.
"I want to see Maddie."
"Not today."
"Rachel—"
"Not today."
She ended the call.
Across town, Grant went to the Bennett family archive.
His late father Arthur kept paper copies of everything.
Tax files.
Trust amendments.
Property deeds.
Old photographs.
Grant found his birth certificate in a locked drawer.
Mother: Evelyn Marie Bennett.
Father: Arthur James Bennett.
But the paper was issued eleven months after his birth.
A delayed certificate.
The clerk found a sealed original.
Access required a court order.
Then Grant found something else.
An old hospital bill under his father's name.
PATIENT: C. WARD.
MATERNITY SERVICES.
His birth date.
His hospital.
C. Ward.
He searched the company database.
Nothing.
Then a handwritten note fell from the folder.
Arthur's handwriting.
June Calloway knows what Evelyn did.
Grant knew the name.
June had been a nurse at St. Matthew's Hospital for forty years.
She was also the woman his father sent flowers to every Christmas.
Grant found her address in an old contact book.
At seventy-nine, June lived in a small assisted-living apartment outside Hartford.
When Grant said his name, she dropped the teacup in her hand.
"You have Arthur's eyes."
"Who is C. Ward?"
Then she began to cry.
"Your mother."
"Evelyn says my mother was dangerous."
"No."
"What was her name?"
June wiped her face.
"Celeste Ward."
"Where is she?"
May you like
June's eyes met his.
"Alive."
