Chapter 4: What Ruth Gave Her
Saturday morning, I drove to Ruth's house without calling ahead.
She answered the door in her housecoat, coffee in hand, and the moment she saw my face, her expression shifted.
Not guilt exactly.
Something more practiced than guilt.
"Daniel." She stepped back slightly.
"I wasn't expecting you."
"I know." I stepped inside without being invited.
"We need to talk about Lorna."
She set her coffee on the side table.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Ruth." I turned to face her.
"She quoted the custody agreement almost word for word.
She knew about the medical arrangement.
She knew about Marcus.
The only person outside of that room who had any of that information was you."
"I never gave her documents—"
"I didn't say documents.
I said information." I kept my voice level.
"What did you tell her?"
Ruth crossed her arms.
Her jaw was tight.
"I told her the truth.
That you took Diana's daughter and shut the rest of her family out.
That you made decisions at the end that none of us were allowed to question.
That there are things in that custody arrangement that a judge might want to look at more carefully."
"You told a woman you barely know private details about your sister's death and your niece's custody arrangement.
You handed her a weapon and pointed it at Estelle."
"I pointed it at you."
"Estelle is seven years old, Ruth.
She is the one who gets hurt."
Something moved across Ruth's face.
Not enough.
Not nearly enough.
"I want to be part of her life," she said.
"You've kept her from me for three years."
"I kept her from you because every time you came around, you told her that her father had taken her away from her mother's family.
She came home from your house crying twice.
Twice, Ruth.
She was four years old."
Ruth looked away.
"Lorna is going to the courthouse Monday morning," I said.
"Whatever she files, it becomes public.
It becomes something Estelle will eventually be able to read.
Is that what you want?
Her mother's medical history turned into a legal argument?
Diana's last weeks turned into a court document?"
The silence that followed was long.
"I didn't think she would actually go to court," Ruth said finally.
Her voice was smaller now.
"What did you think she would do?"
"I thought she would use it to — to make you reconsider.
About Estelle.
About letting me see her more."
"You gave a woman leverage over me and my daughter and you thought she would use it gently."
Ruth sat down on the arm of the sofa.
Her coffee was going cold on the side table.
She didn't reach for it.
"I made a mistake," she said.
"Yes." I looked at her for a long moment.
"I need to know everything you told her.
Every detail.
Not to punish you.
Because Marcus needs to know what she has before Monday so we can protect Estelle."
Ruth looked up.
"And if I tell you everything?"
"Then we deal with Lorna.
And after that, you and I talk about Estelle.
Properly.
Like two adults who both loved Diana."
It took her a moment.
Then she nodded.
She talked for forty minutes.
I listened to all of it.
Some of it I already knew.
Some of it I hadn't expected — including the fact that Lorna had approached Ruth first, not the other way around.
Lorna had found Ruth through Diana's old social media.
Had reached out with sympathy.
Had spent three months building trust before she ever asked a single question.
By the time Ruth finished, I understood something I hadn't understood before.
Lorna had been planning this for a long time.
The relationship with me had never been accidental.
I called Marcus from the car.
"She was working a plan," I said.
"From the beginning."
A pause.
"How long?"
"At least a year before she approached me."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"Daniel," Marcus said.
"That changes what this is.
That's not a scorned ex using what she stumbled onto.
That's something else."
"I know."
"I need to make some calls tonight.
Don't contact Lorna.
Don't respond to anything from her.
And keep Estelle home tomorrow."
I pulled out of Ruth's street and drove toward home.
The sky was the flat grey of a day that couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
Lorna had chosen me on purpose.
May you like
She had chosen Estelle on purpose.
The question I couldn't answer yet was why.
