The words made Nora feel as though the floor had moved beneath her shoes.
Her mother had never mentioned the company.
Claire unfolded the letter but did not read it aloud.
She explained that Henry had written it seventeen years earlier and had spent years trying to decide whether sending it would harm the daughter Elise had protected.
Nora asked why he had waited until a snowstorm and a diner meal to make contact.
Claire looked ashamed.
She said Henry had intended to meet Nora months earlier but had suffered a serious illness and lost contact with the private investigator responsible for confirming the address.
His appearance at the diner had not been planned.
He had gotten out of a car after an argument with his family and had wandered farther than he realized.
Nora asked why anyone would hand a sick old man a Bentley and then allow him to roam the city alone.
Claire said the family had no unanimous answer to that question.
Curtis cleared his throat, hoping to remind them that the room belonged to him.
Claire turned and asked why Nora had been removed from the weekend schedule.
Curtis said it was a misunderstanding about restaurant policy.
Nora said clearly that he had punished her for buying the stranger a meal.
Claire wrote down his exact explanation and did not argue.
She told Nora that her employment dispute and the contents of the case were separate matters.
Nora appreciated the distinction more than any promise of money.
She had spent years watching wealthy people present favors as debts that would eventually need repayment.
Claire offered to leave the case with her and return the next morning.
Nora asked whether Henry was safe.
Claire said he was resting at home with a physician nearby.
Nora placed the letter back inside the case because she could not bear to open it beneath Curtis’s fluorescent light.
When she reached for her coat, she realized she had no bus fare.
Claire offered her a ride.
Nora declined until the woman suggested that one of the drivers take her to her sister’s apartment without asking another question.
Nora agreed on the condition that nobody wake Owen.
Chapter 4: A Mother Who Never Spoke
Nora read the letter at her sister’s kitchen table while Owen slept under a dinosaur blanket in the next room.
Her sister, Beth, sat across from her with two mugs of tea and said nothing until Nora finished the first page.
Henry’s handwriting slanted sharply to the right.
