Chapter 24: Her Name

The registry office in Guadalajara had cream walls and a ceiling fan.

Forty of Lorena's chairs stood lined up along the back.

Pilar had brought them over in a truck that morning without asking.

"They're the clinic order," Pilar said, setting down the last one.

"It's the only place I could think of where they'd get sat on by someone happy."

"The clinic is waiting for them."

"The clinic can wait an hour."

It was six weeks since the thirtieth day.

Lorena stood in the hall in a plain ivory dress with a high waist.

The curve under it was no longer a secret to anyone.

She was twenty weeks along.

Renata sat in her wheelchair at the front, in a yellow coat, holding white roses with crooked stems.

Her father sat next to her with his hat on his knee.

He had been crying since the car.

In the third row Consuelo wore pearls and a navy dress.

She had brought a handkerchief and was pretending it was a fan.

Ignacio had been there since eight.

He had been told ten.

He stood at the front in a dark suit.

When Lorena came in on her father's arm he looked at her, then at the ceiling fan, then at her again.

His hands did not know where to go.

She stopped in front of him.

"You've been here two hours," she said.

"Two hours and ten minutes."

"The clerk told me."

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