Chapter 3 - WHAT WAS INSIDE THE LOCKET
Lucy refused to open the locket at first.
That scared me.
She held it against herself and whispered:
“I thought this was gone.”
I crouched several feet from the tub.
No gloves now.
No sponge.
“Who gave it to you?”
“My father.”
“When?”
“My eighteenth birthday.”
I felt dizzy.
“My mother said it was family jewelry.”
“It was.”
Lucy looked at me carefully.
“You really are Sofia’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“What year were you born?”
I told her.
She did the math silently.
Then started crying.
“I had a granddaughter.”
Not I have.
I had.
As if she had spent decades believing the possibility disappeared before she ever knew it existed.
Alejandro brought her one of our robes and stepped outside while Evelyn and I helped her dress.
This time I did not complain.
Lucy sat afterward on the bathroom bench wrapped in white cotton, the gold locket still in her palm.
Finally, she pressed the tiny release.
The locket opened.
Inside was a faded photograph.
Two girls.
One was perhaps eleven.
The other a toddler.
I recognized the older child immediately.
My mother.
Sofia.
The younger one looked like old childhood photographs of Evelyn.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“That’s me.”
Lucy nodded.
“I only saw you twice.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“What?”
Lucy touched the picture.
“Your father brought you to meet Sofia after you were born.”
Evelyn stared at her.
“Dad told me you refused to see us.”
Lucy looked genuinely confused.
“No.”
Silence.
Then Lucy asked the question that began undoing thirty years of family history.
“What did Mateo tell you happened to me?”
Evelyn looked toward me.
Neither of us wanted to answer.
So I did.
“He said you abandoned Mom.”
Lucy’s face changed.
Not outrage.
Pain.
“No.”
Her voice was barely audible.
“I was removed.”
“Removed from what?”
“My daughter’s life.”
I sat down.
“By whom?”
May you like
Lucy looked at the photograph.
“Your grandfather.”
