Chapter 5 - Someone Wanted Him Unreachable
Maya read the words twice.
“She can’t fix this now.”
Evan stood up slowly.
“Ava, who came into the room?”
“No one.”
“Housekeeping?”
“Maybe.”
“Did you leave the room?”
Ava’s fear turned into anger. “Of course I left the room. You were with me.”
Maya took the envelope.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
“This isn’t about an affair anymore,” Evan said.
Maya looked at him with disgust. “Don’t use a mystery to escape what you did.”
“I’m not.”
“You turned off your phone.”
“I know.”
“You ignored me.”
“I know.”
“You told me I was suffocating you while our daughter was fighting for her life.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
For the first time, he did not defend himself.
Maya looked back at the note.
Then she remembered something.
“The nurse.”
Dr. Patel frowned. “What nurse?”
“Lily had a night nurse named Rebecca. She called me after the funeral home picked up Lily’s things. She asked if I had received everything.”
Dr. Patel’s face changed. “Rebecca Sloan?”
“Yes.”
“She quit yesterday.”
Maya stared at him.
“Quit?”
“Without notice.”
Evan took out his phone.
“Do you have her number?”
Maya laughed bitterly. “Now you want to make calls.”
He lowered the phone.
The shame on his face was real, but it did not soften her.
Dr. Patel gave Maya Rebecca’s work contact card from his folder.
“Hospital policy won’t let me share private employee information beyond this. But security should be able to review who handled the belongings.”
Maya nodded.
Ava picked up her clutch.
“I should go.”
Evan did not stop her.
At the doorway she turned to Maya.
“I believed him when he said you were already done.”
Maya replied, “I was not done until tonight.”
Ava looked at Evan.
“You told me your daughter barely noticed when you traveled.”
His face went white.
Ava left.
Maya waited until the sound of her heels disappeared down the walkway.
Then she opened Lily’s backpack, which had been sitting beneath the memorial table.
Inside were crayons, a stuffed rabbit, two library books, and a folded construction-paper card.
On the front Lily had written:
WHEN DAD COMES HOME.
Evan reached toward it.
Maya pulled it away.
“This one is mine.”
She opened the card.
Her eyes moved across Lily’s crooked handwriting.
Then she stopped.
At the bottom was a drawing.
Three people holding hands.
Mom.
Lily.
And a man labeled DAD.
But someone had drawn a thick black X through Evan’s face.
Not in crayon.
May you like
In black ink.
The same black ink used on the hotel note.
