Chapter 5: Come Alone
I read the message twice.
Then I turned the phone around so Danny could see it.
He read it.
His expression didn't change much, but something behind his eyes went very still.
"She knows you're here," I said.
"Michael," Danny said.
"He must have seen my car outside or — " He stopped.
"I parked on the street.
He lives two blocks over.
He walks his dog at night."
"So Michael told her."
"He wouldn't have known what it meant.
He just would have mentioned it.
A visitor at Aunt Ruth's house." He looked at me.
"She put it together fast."
I set the phone down.
*Come alone.*
Carol had always been like that.
Even as girls.
She was the one who managed things.
Who made arrangements.
Who knew which levers to pull and when.
Our mother used to say Carol could organize a hurricane.
She meant it as a compliment.
"She's trying to get ahead of it," I said.
"Yes."
"She wants to talk to me before I talk to you any further.
Before I decide what to think." I looked at him.
"She's been doing this for fifty-five years.
She's had a long time to prepare."
Danny nodded slowly.
"What are you going to do?"
I picked up the phone.
I typed back four words.
*I'll be there tomorrow.*
I didn't write *alone.* I didn't write *with Danny.* I just sent those four words and set the phone down.
"We'll go in the morning," I said.
"Together.
And we'll see what she says when she sees you standing there."
Danny looked at me for a long moment.
"Ruth," he said.
My name in his voice after all these years was a strange thing.
Familiar and completely new at the same time.
"Whatever she says tomorrow — whatever she tries to tell you — I need you to know something first."
"Tell me."
"When I came back from Vietnam, I spent two years looking for you.
Two years writing letters, asking around, trying every address I had.
When Carol's letter finally came and told me you'd married — I didn't believe it at first.
I went to your parents' house.
Your father answered the door." He stopped.
"He told me you were gone.
That you'd moved away.
That you were happy and I should respect that and leave."
My father.
I felt something cold move through me.
"My father knew?"
Danny's face told me before he spoke.
"I think Carol talked to him.
I think she told him a version of things that made him believe he was protecting you." He paused.
"I don't think he knew the whole truth.
But he helped close the door."
My father had been gone for twenty years.
There was no door left to open with him.
I sat back down at the table.
"How many people," I said slowly, "helped her do this."
It wasn't really a question.
Danny reached across the table.
May you like
He didn't take my hand — he just placed his next to mine, close enough that I could feel the warmth of it.
"Tomorrow," he said, "we find out."
