Chapter 7 - Mara Had Not Been Working Alone, But She Had Not Planned The Company
Helen closed the restaurant office door.
Mara sat on one side.
I stayed because the uniform was mine.
Daniel and Katherine stayed because the child was theirs.
Noah sat outside with Luis and a plate of fries he did not touch.
Helen said:
“One person at a time.”
Daniel ignored her.
“Who was with you?”
Mara looked genuinely confused.
“No one.”
“Noah says—”
“I heard him.”
“Then?”
Mara stared at the desk.
“The first Saturday, I saw someone in the service corridor.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
I frowned.
“You didn't think that was worth mentioning?”
“I thought she was staff.”
“In whose uniform?”
Mara looked at me.
“Regular black-and-white.”
Half our staff.
“What did she look like?”
“Older.”
“How old?”
“Fifties, maybe.”
Daniel went still.
Katherine noticed.
“What?”
He looked at her.
Nothing.
Mara caught it too.
“Daniel.”
“No.”
“What?”
He stood.
“Not this.”
Helen said:
“Sit down.”
He looked at her.
She pointed at the chair.
He sat.
I almost tipped her twenty percent.
Mara said:
“Who are you thinking?”
Daniel rubbed his jaw.
“My mother.”
Noah's grandmother June.
Katherine stared.
“June wouldn't—”
Mara laughed softly.
“You still do that.”
Katherine stopped.
Daniel said:
“Mom knows Mara worked here.”
“Yes.”
“She knows the old service corridor.”
Mara frowned.
“She hasn't been here in years.”
“Do you know that?”
Mara did not.
Another assumption.
Daniel called his mother.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Katherine took out her own phone.
“She answers me.”
Daniel looked irritated.
“Why?”
“Because I call her.”
Reasonable.
June answered Katherine immediately.
Katherine put it on speaker.
“June, where are you?”
“At home.”
Daniel said:
“Were you at Bell & Finch this month?”
Silence.
Mara closed her eyes.
“Mom.”
June's voice changed.
“Mara?”
Seven years.
One syllable.
Mara looked suddenly furious.
“You knew.”
June said:
“I knew you were back in town.”
“How?”
“You called your cousin.”
Mara laughed.
“Of course.”
No secrets survive aunts.
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“Did you meet Noah?”
“No.”
“Were you inside Bell & Finch?”
Long pause.
“Yes.”
Katherine whispered:
“June.”
Daniel said:
“How many times?”
“Once.”
Mara stared.
“When?”
“Your first Saturday.”
Mara’s face hardened.
“Why?”
June said nothing.
Daniel's voice rose.
“Mom.”
“I wanted to see what Mara was doing.”
Mara laughed bitterly.
“So you followed me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you stop me?”
“I thought you would stop yourself.”
Silence.
June continued:
“Then I saw Noah.”
Daniel looked sick.
“What did you say to him?”
“Very little.”
Noah's line came back.
Dad locked Aunt Mara outside.
Mara said:
“You told him about me.”
“I told him his father had a sister.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
June continued:
“He asked why he'd never met her.”
“And?”
“I said adults had made decisions before he could remember.”
Mara's expression changed.
Not angry now.
Suspicious.
“Did you say Daniel locked me outside?”
June stopped.
There.
“No.”
Noah had heard that from somebody else.
The woman with Mara had not been June.
Or there had been a third person.
I felt exhaustion replace fear.
“How many people are using my kitchen as family therapy?”
Helen muttered:
“Excellent question.”
Mara looked toward me.
“I didn't bring anyone.”
Daniel said:
“Then who knew you were there?”
Mara thought.
“One person.”
Everyone waited.
“My mother.”
June said:
“I didn't tell anyone.”
Mara continued.
“And Katherine.”
Katherine shook her head.
“No.”
Mara looked at her.
“You told me not to contact Noah. I told you I was in town.”
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
Then Katherine's face changed.
Daniel saw it.
“What?”
She looked down.
“My mother.”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“Of course.”
Katherine’s mother, Susan Bell.
Noah's other grandmother.
She had been close to Mara before the divorce.
Katherine said:
“I told her Mara had contacted me.”
“When?”
“Two months ago.”
“Did she know about Bell & Finch?”
Katherine hesitated.
“Yes.”
Mara looked at her.
“How?”
“Because she used to meet you here.”
Daniel stared.
“When?”
Katherine's face tightened.
“After the pickup.”
The room went quiet.
Mara closed her eyes.
She knew.
Daniel did not.
“What do you mean after?”
Katherine stared at him.
“My mother was the one who helped Mara leave town.”
Another piece of his family's history had apparently happened with everyone present except him.
And now the woman in the reflection had a second possible identity.
May you like
Not a stranger.
Another grandmother who had spent seven years keeping quiet.
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