Chapter 4: What Sandra Left Behind
Marcus didn't go to prom.
Neither did Lily.
They sat at the kitchen table while Robert made coffee none of them wanted, and the rented tuxedo jacket hung over the back of a chair like a question nobody had answered yet.
Lily's corsage sat on the counter.
One petal had already fallen.
"Tell me about growing up," Robert said to Marcus.
He set three mugs down and took his seat.
"Where did she raise you?"
"We moved a lot when I was young.
Portland first, then Reno, then a small town in Idaho I barely remember.
We settled in Claremont when I was nine." Marcus wrapped both hands around the mug.
"She worked as a bookkeeper.
Same firm for eleven years.
She never dated anyone, at least not that I saw.
She was — she is — very private."
"Did she ever talk about the past?
Before you were born?"
"Never.
I stopped asking when I was twelve.
She'd get this look." He paused.
"Like a door closing."
Robert nodded slowly, as if that confirmed something.
"The man I mentioned," he said.
"His name was Gerald Croft.
His family had money — old money, the kind that makes people think they're untouchable.
He and Sandra had some kind of history before I met her.
She never told me the details, but I could see it in the way she flinched when his name came up." He took a sip of coffee.
"When she disappeared, I did some asking around.
One of her friends told me Gerald had come to see Sandra two weeks before she left.
She said the visit hadn't gone well."
"What does that mean?" Lily asked.
"It means he threatened her," Marcus said flatly.
"Didn't it."
Robert didn't deny it.
"I think he found out about us.
About how serious it had become.
And I think he told her what would happen if she didn't end it." He set his mug down.
"Sandra was protecting herself.
Maybe she was protecting me too.
And if she was already pregnant when she left—"
"She was protecting me," Marcus said.
The word sat in the air between them.
"I need to go home," Marcus said.
He pushed back his chair.
"I need to look her in the eye and ask her myself."
"Marcus—" Lily started.
"I'm not angry at her." He stopped.
Reconsidered.
"I don't know what I am.
But I need to hear it from her." He looked at Robert.
"I'll call you after."
Robert stood.
"I'll drive you."
"No." Marcus picked up his jacket.
"I need to do this part alone."
He left through the front door.
Lily watched from the window as he walked down the street, hands in his pockets, bow tie hanging loose around his neck.
The night was clear.
He didn't look back.
"Dad," she said quietly.
"What if his mother won't talk?"
"She'll talk." Robert came to stand beside her.
"She's been carrying this for seventeen years.
That's a very long time to carry something alone."
Lily turned away from the window.
"There's something you're not saying."
He looked at her.
"Gerald Croft," she said.
"You know more about him than you're telling me."
A long pause.
"He died four years ago," Robert said.
"Heart failure.
His son runs the family business now." He picked up his coffee mug, then set it back down without drinking.
"His son's name is Daniel Croft.
And about six months ago, I ran into him at a work conference." He looked at Lily steadily.
"He asked me if I had ever known a woman named Sandra Veil."
Lily's breath stopped.
"What did you tell him?"
"I told him no," Robert said.
May you like
"And then I watched him very carefully for the rest of that conference." He paused.
"He was lying too."
