Chapter 19: Mama Will Say Stay

Nobody in the shop moved.

Then Ansel walked out onto the sidewalk with the note in his hand, and we all followed.

It was a gray, windy Friday on Hale Street.

The baker's customers stood in her doorway. The tailor had come out in his shirtsleeves.

A bus stopped at the corner and stayed, doors open, because the driver wanted to see.

Constance turned on the pavement to face him.

"Ansel, whatever that is, it's a forgery," she said. "She was ill that month."

"It's her hand."

"She wasn't herself."

"Tell me what it means," he said. "Mama will say stay."

"I haven't the least idea."

"Yes, you do."

"Darling, you're making a scene in the street."

"Then tell me quietly," said Ansel. "I'll wait."

He held out the page.

Constance looked at it, and her mouth worked.

"She came to my house the Sunday before," she said at last. "She was crying."

"Go on."

"She said she wanted a divorce. I said she was tired. I said all brides go through it."

"She'd been married three years."

"I said what any mother would say." Her voice rose. "I said, think of the family."

"And?"

"And think of what you'd be giving up."

"Giving up."

"Have you any idea what it would have cost?" Constance said. "Do you know what that foundation lives on? Whose name opens every door in this city?"

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