PART 2: The Visitor in Room 412
“For me?”
“For you and your granddaughter.”
“Why?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he drew a photograph from the envelope and passed it through the gap in the door. I nearly refused it, but then the ring caught my eye.
A smiling woman stood next to a teenage girl, one arm draped around the girl’s shoulders. On the woman’s finger sat the very same enormous diamond Poppy had found. I looked harder at the girl. The smile. The dark hair. Those familiar eyes.
My hands turned cold. It was Lorna, my daughter-in-law, Poppy’s mother. I’d known her since she was twenty, but I had never seen a picture of her as a teenager.
I slid the chain off. “Where did you get this?”
“That’s our mother, Rosalind. And that’s my sister Lorna.”
“Lorna never had a brother.”
“She never told you?”
“She said she didn’t speak to her father. That’s all.”
“Her father is my father.”
“And the woman at Walmart?”
“My other sister, Tabitha. The ring was our mother’s. She wanted Lorna’s first child to have it.”
“Then why didn’t Lorna’s child get it?”
“Dad wouldn’t give it up. He cut Lorna off nine years ago. Tabitha took the ring from his nightstand two days ago. She was bringing it to you.”
“She stole it.”
“Yes.”
“Why not just ask him?”
“He won’t even say Lorna’s name.”
“How did you find us?”
“We’d been trying to find Lorna for years. Three months ago an investigator turned up a guardianship record naming you and Poppy. That’s when we learned she had died.” His voice cracked. “We should have tried harder.”
“It’s been three years.”
“I know. We sent two letters through a law firm.”
I thought of the kitchen drawer stuffed with unopened envelopes.
“What do you want?”
“My father is dying. The doctors give him weeks. Tabitha and I want Poppy to meet him before he goes.”
“And your father?”
“He says he doesn’t want to see her. But we think he’s lying, mostly to himself. He’s stubborn and proud, and he’s carried something for years that he won’t tell us. We think he wants her but can’t forgive himself.”
“So you’re doing this behind his back.”
“Yes. And she’s our niece. We want to know her too.”
“You let the time slip away.”
“I know. We should have stood up to Dad. We didn’t.”
I folded my arms. “Are you trying to take her?”
“What? No.”
“Rich family. Lawyers. And me with a leaking roof.”
“Nobody’s taking anyone. I swear.”
“Swearing is cheap.”
He pulled a velvet pouch from his coat. “Tabitha gave me this. It’s Poppy’s.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Then hold it for her. Please.” He turned and walked back to the SUV.
I locked the door and sat down at the kitchen table with the pouch in front of me. They had money and lawyers. I had a leaking roof and a weak heart. What if they wanted to take her?
Poppy came down the stairs in her socks, hugging her stuffed rabbit. “Who was at the door, Grandma?”
“They had the wrong house.”
She pushed a drawing across the table. Four stick figures: me, Poppy, and two stars above us.
“That’s Mommy and Daddy. They’re watching.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Grandma? Sometimes I wish our family was bigger. All my friends have aunts and uncles and cousins. I love you, but sometimes it’s lonely with just the two of us.”
“I know, baby.” I drew her close. “I wish things were different too.”
“Do you think I’ll ever have a big family?”
I had no answer. I kissed her hair and stared at the pouch. Could I really keep her from a grandfather with only weeks left? But what if he broke her heart?
My phone buzzed. Unknown number.
“Hi, this is Tabitha. We met at Walmart.”
“What do you want?”
“Please don’t judge us by what Spencer told you. He doesn’t know everything. I’m at St. Luke’s cafeteria. There’s something about Lorna and your son you deserve to hear in person.”
My son.
I dropped Poppy off with my neighbor Dottie and drove to St. Luke’s. Tabitha was seated in a corner, an untouched coffee in front of her.
“You came.”
“Have you been following my granddaughter?”
“For three days. I couldn’t make myself approach you. What was I supposed to say?”
“Then what happened at Walmart?”
“I was about to talk to you in the candy aisle when I saw Dad’s driver at the entrance. Dad had discovered the ring was gone and guessed what I was doing. He sent Otis to bring me home before I reached you. I panicked, hid the ring behind the candy, let Otis take me to the car, then begged him to let me run back for my wallet.”
“And Poppy found it.”
“Yes. The call was Dad, furious. And you were right to wonder about what I told you. Your granddaughter saved something I could never replace. That ring was Mom’s last wish for Lorna’s child. And I had already failed Lorna.”
“How?”
“She wrote me a year before she died. I never answered. Dad threatened to cut off anyone who contacted her: the house, the company, my kids’ tuition.”
“So you chose the money.”
“I chose the easy thing. I regret it every day.”
“Spencer says your father doesn’t want Poppy.”
“That’s what he says. But he’s kept Mom’s ring beside his bed for nine years.”
“What did Lorna do that was so terrible?”
“She married your son. Dad wanted someone wealthy. Gavin fixed school buses. Dad called him a mechanic with no future, right in front of Lorna.”
“Gavin was the best man I ever raised.”
“I know. Lorna said so in her letter.” She hesitated. “There’s something else. When I told Dad she was dead, he just said, ‘I know.’”
“He knew?”
“Apparently.”
“I buried them with eleven people there,” I said. “Not one from her side. Where is he?”
“Room 412.”
