Chapter 7: What Patricia Knew
I drove to Patricia's house that evening.
She lived in a white colonial on the north side of the city — a house Grant had grown up in, a house I had sat in for twelve Christmases and eight Thanksgivings and one very long afternoon when Lily was born and Patricia had held her for forty minutes without offering her back.
The housekeeper let me in without calling ahead.
She had always liked me more than she was supposed to.
Patricia was in the sitting room with a cup of tea she wasn't drinking.
She looked up when I walked in and did not look surprised.
"Evelyn."
"You called Thomas Reade this morning."
She set the cup down.
"Sit down."
"I'd rather stand."
She looked at me for a moment, then nodded slightly.
"All right."
"How long have you known about Whitfield?"
"Two years."
"Two years." I let that sit in the air.
"Lily was ten."
"It wasn't about Lily."
"Everything Grant does is about Lily.
She's the one who lives with the consequences." I stepped closer.
"You put that envelope on her bedside table while she was unconscious.
You came to that hospital and asked me not to do anything rash, and the whole time you already knew."
Patricia's hands moved to her lap.
"I was trying to protect my son."
"By managing me."
"By giving you information before you acted blindly."
"You gave me partial information.
You gave me enough to make me hesitate." I kept my voice even.
"Did you know he was going to give Whitfield access to my accounts?"
Something crossed her face.
It was the first honest thing I had seen from her all week.
"No," she said.
"I didn't know that."
"But you knew about the debt."
"Yes."
"And the woman."
A pause.
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
She looked up at me.
"What would you have had me say, Evelyn?
He's my son."
"He's also the father of your granddaughter.
Who was alone in an ICU while he was on a yacht." My voice finally shifted — not loud, but different.
"I have never asked you to choose between us.
I have never put you in that position.
But you chose anyway.
You chose to protect him and manage me, and you dressed it up as giving me information."
Patricia's eyes were bright.
She didn't look away.
"The SEC inquiry opens this week," I said.
"Thomas filed the 14-C removal this afternoon.
Grant's equity in Mercer Capital is gone.
His name comes off the accounts today." I picked up my bag.
"I am telling you this not because you deserve to know first, but because Lily loves you.
And I will not let what Grant did destroy her relationship with her grandmother if I can help it."
Patricia's chin moved.
Just slightly.
"What do you want from me?" she asked.
Her voice was quieter now.
"Nothing," I said.
"I want nothing from you.
But if Lily asks to see you — and she will, because she loves you — you will be honest with her at whatever level is appropriate for a twelve-year-old.
You will not tell her that her father made a mistake and panicked.
You will not minimize it." I walked toward the door.
"She already knows something is wrong.
She stopped asking about him before she even left the hospital."
I reached the hallway.
"Evelyn." Patricia's voice followed me.
"I am sorry.
For what it's worth."
I stopped but didn't turn around.
"It's worth something," I said.
"Not everything.
But something."
I let myself out.
The drive home was forty minutes.
I didn't turn on the radio.
I thought about Lily at twelve, already learning to stop asking for things she sensed she wouldn't get.
I thought about how children absorb the shape of a family's lies long before they understand the words.
My phone buzzed three times before I reached the house.
All three were Grant.
I didn't answer.
When I pulled into the driveway, Rosa was standing at the front door.
She had stayed late.
She had a light on in the kitchen.
"Miss Lily called from the hospital," she said.
"She wanted to know if you were coming back tonight."
"I'm going now," I said.
"Thank you, Rosa."
She nodded.
Then, quietly: "Mrs.
Mercer.
I should have called you sooner.
When Mr.
Grant left that morning.
I should have — "
"Rosa." I stopped her.
"You saved her life.
That's what happened.
That's the only thing that matters."
Her eyes filled.
She nodded and stepped back inside.
May you like
I got back in the car and drove to St.
Matthew's.
