Lili shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“I’ll check the Internet,” Michelle offered, getting up from the table, “find out what flights are arriving from Calgary and when.”
“I better call your father,” Caroline said.
“I’m sorry this is getting so complicated.” Lili began absently dunking her toast in her coffee.
“What are you doing?” Michelle asked, stopping dead in her tracks.
“Sorry.” Lili immediately lifted the now-coffee-soaked piece of toast from her mug. “I guess it’s kind of gross.”
Tears filled Caroline’s eyes, as if this simple gesture was the genetic “tell” she’d been looking for, all the proof she needed that Lili was indeed her child.
The phone rang.
“Maybe that’s her,” Michelle said.
Caroline moved quickly to answer it. “Hello?”
“Caroline. It’s Arthur…Aidan Wainwright. Please hear me out.”
She immediately slammed the receiver down.
“What happened?” Michelle asked. “You’re white as a ghost. Who was that?”
Caroline leaned back against the counter, instinctively understanding that the reporter knew of Lili’s existence and wondering how long it would be before the rest of the world found out.
“Mom? Who was that?” Michelle repeated.
Caroline put two and two together and came up with the only possible answer under the circumstances. “Trouble.”
“Here comes a taxi.” Caroline backed away from the living room window, her heart pounding.
Michelle immediately moved to take her place behind the sheer curtains. “No. It’s not stopping. Oh, crap.”
“What’s happening?”
“I just saw something move behind the big tree across the street.”
“Another reporter?” Caroline was immediately back at the window.
“Probably.”
“Shit. Looks like the vultures are circling.”
“Are you serious?” Lili asked from her seat on the sofa.
“I’m afraid so,” Michelle said.
“I don’t understand. How would they even know…?”
“Somebody must have tipped them off.”
“You think it was Beth?” Lili asked Caroline.
“I don’t know. You said she threatened to.”
“I know, but…”
“But what?” Michelle asked.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Lili said. “She’ll be here any minute. The last thing she’d want is a bunch of reporters waiting for her.”
“Unless that’s exactly what she wants,” Michelle said.
“What do you mean?” Caroline and Lili asked together, their voices overlapping.
Michelle spun toward Lili. “You almost had me convinced, you know. Not that you were actually Samantha. But that you really believed you might be.”
“But that’s the truth.”
“Is it? Or is it something else? You said before that this was getting so complicated, but maybe it’s not complicated at all. Maybe it’s what my uncle Steve suggested: a chance to get in on the action, to jump-start a career in show business, make the cover of People?”
“No,” Lili protested.
“You know that’s not true,” Caroline said.
“I know it’s no coincidence that your reporter boyfriend happened to phone this morning after five years. I know that the press isn’t camped out on our doorstep because it’s a slow news day. Somebody told them Lili was here, and why.”
Caroline winced at the word “boyfriend,” its sting as painful as if Michelle had physically struck her.
“Did you tell anyone?” Michelle asked Lili.
“No. Did you?”
“Me? Are you kidding? Shit. Here comes a truck from Fox News.”
“Damn it,” Caroline said. “Call your father.”
“I’ve already called him three times.”
“Call him again.”
Michelle groaned as she pulled her cell phone out of her jeans pocket and punched in the number for Hunter’s office. “Hi, Lucy. Sorry to bother you again, but…Yeah, I know he’s with clients. He’s been with clients all day…”
“Give me that.” Caroline grabbed the phone from her hand. “Lucy, this is Caroline. I need to speak to Hunter immediately.”
“I’m so sorry, but he’s in a very important meeting,” the secretary responded.
“Then. Get. Him. Out.”
“Just a minute.”
“Wow,” Michelle muttered. “That was impressive.”
“What’s up?” Hunter said moments later, his voice rushed and impatient. “I’m in the middle of a major deal…”
“And I’ve got a street filling up with reporters.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Aidan Wainwright phoned me this morning.”
“Who the hell is Aidan Wain…? Oh, shit,” he said, before Caroline could answer. “What did that jerk want?”
“I didn’t give him a chance to tell me. But I suspect he was calling because he found out about Lili.”
“You think she called him?”
“No. But it’s possible that Beth…”
“Who’s Beth?”
Caroline couldn’t bring herself to say “Lili’s mother.” “Apparently she’s on her way here from Calgary,” she said instead, hoping to jog Hunter’s memory.