Chapter 3 - Grant Carter Used To Give Us Missions
Grant Carter never called them rules.
Rules sound limiting.
Grant liked words that made obedience feel important.
Mission.
Objective.
Standard.
When Vanessa and I were nineteen, he would hand us hotel keycards and say:
“Mission. Downstairs in twelve minutes.”
Or:
“Mission. Sponsor dinner. Vanessa smiles. Rachel keeps her from talking politics.”
We thought it was funny.
Then irritating.
Then normal.
I had forgotten the word before hearing it outside Lily's dressing room.
Now I couldn't stop hearing it.
Owen took Lily home.
Not because he ordered Vanessa away from her.
Because Lily asked to go with him.
Vanessa tried:
“Baby, Mommy can—”
“No.”
One word.
Seven years old.
Vanessa stopped.
Owen looked surprised too.
Lily reached for his hand.
Vanessa did not interfere.
That was the first decent choice I had watched her make all evening.
Melissa officially withdrew Lily from the pageant.
Vanessa lost the entry fee.
Costume fee.
Photography package.
Optional coaching package.
Hotel suite.
Enough money to hurt.
Not enough to justify what I had seen.
When Owen and Lily left, Vanessa stood in the hallway watching the elevator doors close.
I remained several feet behind her.
“You're supposed to say something.”
She didn't turn.
“To you?”
“To yourself.”
That got her attention.
She looked exhausted.
“What do you want, Rachel?”
“The truth would be unusual.”
“You've always liked saying that.”
The old anger came back quickly.
Good.
At least it belonged to us.
“You still blame me.”
She laughed.
“For what? Pick a year.”
“Your mother.”
Vanessa's face closed.
I knew I'd found the wall.
I held up Celeste's ring.
“Why was this inside your old crown?”
“I don't know.”
“Why have you been looking for it?”
She stared.
“Lily said you showed her pictures.”
“I was looking for jewelry my mother owned.”
“Why now?”
“No reason.”
“Your father appears outside the dressing room and says you failed a mission.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Grant did not appear.”
“You just confirmed it was Grant.”
She realized.
Too late.
“I recognized his voice before Owen said his name.”
She looked away.
“Fine.”
“Why wouldn't you say it?”
“Because you enjoy turning everything connected to my father into pathology.”
“Your daughter was sobbing while you forced a crown onto her head because your father told you to complete a mission.”
Vanessa moved toward me.
I didn't move.
She stopped before touching me.
“Do not use Lily to score something from sixteen years ago.”
“I'm not.”
“Yes, you are.”
Her eyes filled.
“You've wanted to be right about him since we were nineteen.”
“About what?”
Vanessa laughed.
“Please.”
I did know.
Grant controlled her schedule.
Her food during competition weeks.
Who she dated publicly.
Which college interviews she accepted.
How she talked about Celeste after she vanished.
I had called it controlling then.
Vanessa called it family.
Later I stopped calling at all.
“Where is Grant?”
“I don't know.”
“He's a sponsor.”
Her face changed.
Small.
Enough.
I went to Melissa.
The sponsor lounge was two floors above us.
Grant Carter's name was not on the event signage.
It was on the private donor list.
A family foundation had funded the Heritage Showcase.
Carter Legacy Arts.
I almost laughed.
Of course.
Melissa looked embarrassed.
“I didn't connect it.”
“Why would you?”
Grant had spent years out of pageants publicly.
Vanessa had built her own image.
Different surname? No. Same surname, but common enough in this world.
“Did he request the crown?”
I asked.
Melissa thought.
“The foundation requested that archived items be included.”
“Which items?”
“Six.”
“Did they specifically request Vanessa's crown?”
A pause.
“I don't know.”
Vanessa appeared behind us.
“Yes.”
We turned.
She looked at me.
“He requested mine.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know at first.”
“And later?”
She stared at the ring.
“My father called me three weeks ago.”
“What did he say?”
“That Celeste had contacted him.”
The hallway seemed to change temperature.
“When?”
“About six weeks ago.”
“Your mother contacted your father.”
“Yes.”
“Is she alive?”
Vanessa's mouth tightened.
“As far as I know.”
I stared.
All these years.
Not presumed dead.
Not officially missing anymore.
Just gone.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“What did she want?”
Vanessa looked toward the crown in Melissa's hands.
“She told him something was still inside it.”
I waited.
“That’s why Grant wanted the crown brought out.”
“Yes.”
“And why you entered Lily.”
Vanessa's face hardened.
“I wanted Lily in the showcase before he called.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
I couldn't prove otherwise.
“What did Grant ask you to do?”
“Nothing.”
I held up the ring.
Vanessa's eyes dropped.
“Nothing?”
Her shoulders sagged.
Then:
“He wanted me to get whatever was inside before anyone else found it.”
“Why?”
“He wouldn't tell me.”
“So you agreed without knowing.”
“He's my father.”
“That has never been an answer.”
She looked at me.
“I know.”
The sentence surprised both of us.
Then Melissa said:
“Why did Lily need to stay in the competition?”
Vanessa looked toward the empty dressing room.
“If she withdrew before the Heritage segment, the crown went back to wardrobe.”
I felt sick.
That was why six minutes had mattered.
Not simply ambition.
Not sunk cost.
Vanessa needed her daughter to remain onstage long enough to keep possession of an old crown.
“You were using her.”
Vanessa turned sharply.
“I was trying to get through one performance.”
“To complete Grant's mission.”
Her face twisted.
“Stop calling it that.”
“He did.”
“I know.”
She looked toward the elevators.
Then said something I had not expected.
“I didn't agree because I was afraid of Grant.”
“What then?”
Vanessa's eyes settled on her mother's ring.
“I agreed because I was afraid of what Celeste put inside.”
Before I could ask why, she turned toward me.
“You want to know what I thought that ring might prove?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“That my mother came back backstage after I told everyone she was already gone.”
I stared.
Because I remembered the same thing.
Celeste Carter had been backstage later that night.
May you like
I had seen her.
And sixteen years ago Vanessa had looked me in the face and told me I hadn't.
