Chapter 2 - THE RING HER MOTHER MADE
Victoria followed Rosa into the service corridor.
The older woman did not stop until they reached a small staff room near the loading entrance. Lily stayed close to her, holding one red rose she had taken from the plate. Victoria closed the door and looked at Rosa with an anger she did not yet know where to direct.
“You were there when Sophia died.”
Rosa swallowed.
“I was at the hospital.”
“You gave me her belongings.”
“Yes.”
“You looked me in the eyes and told me they were hers.”
“They were.”
“Then explain why her daughter is standing here.”
Lily looked up at Rosa.
“Aunt Rosa, is she mad?”
“No, sweetheart.”
Victoria realized she was frightening the child. She lowered herself into a chair and forced her voice to soften.
“Lily, I’m not angry with you. I think I knew your mom a long time ago.”
Lily studied her.
“Mom has your picture.”
Victoria felt a sharp pressure beneath her ribs.
“What picture?”
“You and her at the beach. You’re holding ice cream.”
Victoria remembered the photograph immediately. She was twenty-six. Sophia was eighteen. They had gone to Cape Cod after their mother’s funeral because neither wanted to return to the family house.
In the photograph, Sophia was laughing with vanilla ice cream running down her wrist.
Their matching rings were visible.
Victoria touched her ruby.
“Does your mom still wear hers?”
Lily nodded.
“Only when she’s sad.”
Rosa looked away.
Victoria understood there would be no easy explanation in front of the child. She asked Rosa whether Lily could sit with a restaurant manager she trusted while they talked. Rosa agreed only after Lily received a promise that she would remain near the flower cart and could leave whenever she wanted.
Once the girl was gone, Victoria turned back.
“Start at the beginning.”
Rosa sat.
Eight years earlier, Sophia Vale had been brought to St. Catherine’s Private Medical Center after a car accident on a rain-soaked road outside Boston. Victoria was told her sister suffered catastrophic internal injuries and died during emergency surgery.
Richard handled everything afterward.
He told Victoria the hospital advised against viewing the body because the injuries were severe. He arranged cremation, the memorial service, and the paperwork concerning Sophia’s share of their mother’s estate.
Rosa now admitted Sophia survived.
She was critically injured and unconscious for several days, but she woke.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Rosa’s eyes filled.
“Your father said you knew.”
Victoria stared at her.
“He told the staff your family had agreed to transfer Sophia to a private rehabilitation facility. He said she was in danger from people involved in a financial investigation.”
“What investigation?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“Did you help move her?”
Rosa nodded.
“Yes.”
Victoria stood.
“You let me bury my sister.”
Rosa did not defend herself.
“I knew something was wrong after they stopped letting me see her. I tried to find out where they moved her.”
“And?”
“I lost my job.”
That answer was not enough.
It could never be enough.
But Rosa had more.
She said Sophia appeared at her apartment two years later, thin and frightened, carrying a folder of medical records and using the surname Blake. She asked Rosa whether Victoria knew she was alive.
Rosa told her about the funeral.
Sophia did not believe her.
Then Rosa showed her an old newspaper clipping.
Victoria kneeling beside Sophia’s memorial photograph.
Richard standing behind her.
Sophia cried for almost an hour.
“Why didn’t she come to me?” Victoria asked.
Rosa looked directly at her.
“Because your father showed her documents saying you signed the order to keep her away.”
Victoria’s hand moved instinctively toward the ruby ring.
“I signed no such thing.”
“I believe you.”
“Did Sophia?”
Rosa hesitated.
“Not then.”
That was the first real injury of the reunion. Her sister had been alive, but someone convinced her Victoria helped make her disappear.
Rosa took a folded photograph from her handbag.
It showed Sophia standing beside a little girl outside a modest apartment building. The woman was older, thinner, and had a scar near her hairline, but it was unmistakably Sophia.
Victoria touched the photograph.
Then she noticed something on Sophia’s right hand.
May you like
The matching ruby ring.
The two sisters had worn separate rings for years while believing the other had willingly abandoned her.
