Usually her grandparents were in bed by now.
Leni set the book aside, marking her page. She went to the door, cracked it open just enough so she could peer out.
Lights were on downstairs.
Leni slipped out of her room. Her bare feet made no sound on the plush wool carpeting. Her hand gliding down the smooth mahogany banister, she hurried down the steps. At the bottom, the black-and-white marble felt cold beneath her feet.
Mama was in the living room with her parents. Leni carefully edged forward, just enough so she could see: Mama sitting on the burnt-orange sofa, with her parents sitting across from her in matching paisley wingback chairs. Between them, the maple coffee table was decorated with a forest of ornate china figurines.
“They think he killed us,” Mama said. “I read the local paper today.”
“He easily might have,” Grandma responded. “I warned you, you recall, not to go to Alaska.”
“Not to marry him,” Grandpa said.
“Do you think I need I-told-you-sos?” Mama said. She sighed heavily. “I loved him.”
Leni heard the sorrow and regret that eddied between the three of them. She wouldn’t have understood that kind of regret even a year ago. She did now.
“I don’t know what to do from here,” Mama said. “I’ve screwed up Leni’s life and my own, and now I’ve dragged you into it.”
“Are you kidding?” Grandma said. “Of course you dragged us into it. We’re your parents.”
Grandpa said, “This is for you.”
Leni wanted to peer around but didn’t dare. She heard the squeaking of a chair, then heels clicking on hardwood floors (Grandpa always wore dress shoes, from breakfast to bedtime), and finally a crumpling paper sound.
“It’s a birth certificate,” Mama said after a moment. “For an Evelyn Chesterfield. Born April 4, 1939. Why are you giving it to me?”
Leni heard the squeaking chair again. “And here’s a falsified marriage license. You married a man name Chad Grant. With these two documents, you’ll be able to go to the DMV and get a license and a new Social Security card. I have a birth certificate for Leni, too. She’ll be your daughter, Susan Grant. You two will rent a house not far from here. We will tell everyone you are a relative, or our housekeeper. Something. Anything to keep you safe,” Grandpa said, his voice rough with emotion.
“How did you get these?”
“I’m a lawyer. I know people. I paid a client of mine, a man of … flexible morals.”
“That’s not who you are,” Mama said quietly.
There was a pause, then: “We are all of us changed,” Grandpa said. “We’ve learned the hard way, haven’t we? By making mistakes. We should have listened to you when you were sixteen.”
“And I should have listened to you.”
The doorbell rang.
The sound was so unexpected at this time of night, that Leni felt a clutch of fear. She heard the sound of footsteps, then the rustle of wooden blinds.
“Police,” she heard her grandpa say.
Mama hurried out of the living room and saw Leni.
“Go upstairs,” Grandpa said, following Mama out of the living room.
Mama took Leni’s hand and led her up the stairs. “This way,” Mama said. “Quiet.”
They hurried up the stairs and tiptoed down the unlit hallway into the master bedroom—a huge room with mullioned windows and olive green carpet. A four-poster bed was dressed in lace that matched the carpet precisely.
Mama led Leni to a heating vent in the floor. With care, she pulled the vent out and set it aside.
Mama knelt down, motioned for Leni to scoot beside her. “I used to eavesdrop on the nuns when they came to expel me.”
Leni heard footsteps echo through the metal vent slats.
Men’s voices.
“Detectives Archer Madison and Keller Watt. Seattle PD.”
Grandpa: “Is there something amiss in the neighborhood, Officers, at this late hour?”
“We’re here [something they couldn’t hear] behalf of Alaska state troopers. [Words that blended together] your daughter, Cora Allbright … [something] last seen her … Sorry to say … presumed dead.”
Leni heard her grandma cry out.
“Here, ma’am, let us help you sit.”
A pause. Long. Then a scuffling sound, a briefcase being opened, papers withdrawn. “The pickup truck found … cabin full of blood, broken window, obvious crime scene but the evidence was destroyed by animals … tests inconclusive … X-rays that showed a broken arm … broken nose. Search being conducted, but … this time of year … weather. God knows what we’ll find when the snow melts … keep you informed…”
“He killed them,” Grandpa said. These words were loud, angry. “Son of a bitch.”
“Many reports … his violence.”
Leni turned to her mama. “So we got away with it?”
“Well … there’s no statute of limitations on murder. And everything we’ve done—and will do at the DMV—will be evidence of guilt. He was shot in the back and we disposed of the body and ran. If he is ever found, they’ll come looking for us, and now my parents have lied for us. Another crime. So we have to be careful.”
“For how long?”
“Forever, baby girl.”
*
Dear Matthew,
I’ve called the rehab facility every day this week. I pretend I’m your cousin. The answer is always the same: no change. It breaks a little more of my heart every time.
I know I can never send this letter and that even if I did, you couldn’t read it or wouldn’t understand the words. But I have to write to you, even if the words are lost. I told myself (and have been told repeatedly by others) that I need to move on with my new life. And I’m trying to do that. I am.
But you are inside of me, a part of me, maybe even the best part. I’m not talking only about our baby. I hear your voice in my head. You talk to me in my sleep so much I’ve gotten used to waking with tears on my cheeks.
I guess my mama was right about love. As screwed up as she is, she understands the durability and lunacy of it. You can’t make yourself fall in love, I suppose, and you can’t make yourself fall out of it.
I am trying to fit in down here. Trying hard. I mean, Susan Grant is trying to fit in. The streets are jammed with cars and the sidewalks are wall-to-wall people and pretty much no one looks at anyone else or says hello. You were right about the beauty, though. When I let myself see it, it’s there. I see it in Mount Rainier, which reminds me of Iliamna and can magically appear and disappear. Down here, it’s called The Mountain because really they only have the one. Not like home, where mountains form the exposed spine of our world.
My grandparents care about the weirdest things. How the table is set, what time we eat, how well I tuck the sheets into the bed, how tightly I braid my hair. My grandmother handed me tweezers the other day and told me to pluck my eyebrows.
But we have a nice little rental house not far from them and we can visit if we are careful. I think Mama is surprised to find that she likes to be with her parents. We have plenty to eat and new clothes and when we all sit around the dinner table, we try to knit our lives together, dropped stitches and all.
Maybe that’s what love is.
*
Dear Matthew,
Christmas here is like an Olympic event. I’ve never seen so much glitter and food. My grandparents gave me so many gifts it was embarrassing. But afterward, when I was in my own room alone, staring out the window at neighbors we stay away from, looking at houses strung in twinkling lights, I thought of real winter. Of you. Of us.
I looked at the picture of your grandparents and reread your grandmother’s newspaper article.
I wonder what it’s like for our baby. Does she feel how uncertain I am? Does the song of my broken heart play for her? I want her to be happy. I want her to be the child of our love, of who we were.
I think I felt the baby move today …
I’m thinking of her as Lily. After your grandma.
A girl needs to be strong in this world.
*
Dear Matthew,