Chapter 16: The Test

The lawyer came to breakfast with a folder.

Constance's lawyer was a gray man who never sat all the way back in a chair.

He laid two papers beside my plate, next to the toast I couldn't eat.

"An acknowledgment of paternity," Lawrence said, buttering his own. "Nothing frightening. It just says what we've already told the world."

I read the first line.

It said the child I carried was the biological child of Lawrence Ashcroft, and it had a line for my signature.

A pen lay beside it, already uncapped.

"Sign it today," Lawrence said pleasantly, "and I'll stop asking about the boatbuilder."

"I thought you wanted me to see your doctor first."

"I want both."

He smiled at me over his coffee cup.

This was the test.

If I signed, I would be swearing to a lie in writing, and the paper would be a leash for the rest of my life.

If I refused, he would know I was still fighting.

I picked up the pen, and I made my hand shake.

"I'm sorry. I'm so tired." I pressed the back of my wrist against my mouth. "Can I do it after my nap? I feel sick."

Constance looked up from her newspaper.

"Let her rest," she said. "Tonight, Lawrence. After the doctor's letter arrives."

Lawrence's smile held for one more second.

"Tonight," he agreed.

I went upstairs and lay on the bed for an hour with my eyes open.

At three o'clock the house emptied out for the cake tasting.

I heard the front door shut and the cars pull away, and then I heard nothing at all.

The study was on the ground floor, at the end of the hall.

Constance never locked it, because no one in that house would dare.

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