Chapter 4: The Girl in the Corner Booth
The diner was nearly empty at that hour.
A man at the counter with a coffee.
A young couple by the window.
And in the far corner booth, a girl sitting alone with a glass of water she hadn't touched.
She saw us the moment we walked in.
I knew it was her before I had taken three steps, because she looked at Caleb the way people look at someone they have memorized from a photograph — with recognition and terror in equal measure.
She had his eyes.
She had his jaw.
She had the same way of going very still when she didn't know what to do next, and I had seen Caleb do that ten thousand times.
I walked to the booth first.
"Nora?"
She nodded.
Her hands were flat on the table.
"I'm Diane." I slid into the seat across from her.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm okay." Her voice was steadier than I expected.
"I'm sorry for texting so late.
I almost didn't."
"I'm glad you did."
Caleb stood at the end of the booth.
He didn't sit.
He looked at Nora like a man looking at something he had no right to and couldn't look away from.
"Hi," he said.
It came out barely above a whisper.
Nora looked at him for a long moment.
"Hi."
The waitress appeared.
I ordered three coffees without asking.
Nobody objected.
"How did you find us?" I asked.
"The ancestry site — how long ago did you start looking?"
"About a year ago," Nora said.
"My mom was sick by then.
She told me his name before she got too bad to talk much.
She said she'd sent him a letter when I was born, but she never heard back." She paused.
"She didn't say it like she was angry.
She just said she wanted me to know."
I glanced at Caleb.
He was staring at the table.
"The package," I said quietly.
"What package?"
"We found it tonight.
By accident.
It had never been opened." I watched her face.
"He never saw it, Nora.
The letter, the photograph — he never received them."
She was quiet for a moment.
"Oh."
"I'm not saying that to make excuses.
I'm just telling you what happened."
She nodded slowly.
Then she looked at Caleb again.
"She talked about you sometimes.
Not a lot.
But sometimes." A pause.
"She said you were kind."
Caleb's jaw moved.
Nothing came out.
"She wasn't angry?" he finally managed.
"No." Nora wrapped both hands around her water glass.
"She said some things just don't work out the way you plan, and you can either be bitter about it or you can just keep going." She looked down.
"She was better at that than me."
"How long has she been gone?" I asked.
"Eight months and eleven days."
The coffees arrived.
Nobody reached for them.
"Where are you living?" I asked.
"With my aunt.
My mom's sister.
She's been really good to me, but she has three kids of her own and—" Nora stopped.
"I'm not trying to make it sound worse than it is.
I just wanted to meet him.
I wasn't going to ask for anything."
Caleb finally sat down.
Not across from her — beside me, which left Nora alone on her side of the booth.
I noticed.
I wondered if she did too.
"You don't have to ask," I said.
"You're not a burden.
You're a person."
She looked at me then — really looked at me — and something in her face shifted.
Like she had been braced for something that hadn't come.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked.
"I thought you'd be—"
"Angry?"
"Yeah."
"I might be angry later," I said honestly.
"But not at you."
She almost smiled.
It looked exactly like Caleb's almost-smile, and I felt something move through my chest that I couldn't name yet.
My phone lit up on the table.
I glanced at it.
A number I didn't recognize.
Not Nora's number.
A different one.
The message read: *"I know you found the package.
May you like
We need to talk before this goes any further.
There are things about Nora you don't know yet."*
