And then she did something that undid Marcus completely. She turned to Emma and she asked, "Can Miss Emma come too, so I'm not scared?" Emma made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob. And she pulled Lily into her lap and over the top of the little girl's head, she looked at Marcus with eyes that were streaming now. And Marcus understood that whatever they were before this moment, they were something permanent after it. The meeting was set for two Saturdays later at a park halfway between the two houses because the lawyer had suggested neutral ground and Marcus had agreed.
He barely slept the night before. Not because he was afraid of Viven anymore. The phone calls they'd exchanged over those two weeks had washed most of the fear away. She was warm and nervous and kept apologizing for things that weren't her fault, but because he was afraid of Lily's heart. He was afraid of what it would do to a six-year-old to look into a face with her mother's eyes and feel a grief she didn't have the words for.
Emma stayed over that night. Not like that, she slept in the guest room because they'd agreed to move slow for Lily's sake, but she was there. And at 2:00 in the morning, when Marcus couldn't sleep and went to the kitchen for water, she was already there sitting at the table with her own glass because she couldn't sleep either. "You, too," he said. "Me, too." He sat down across from her.
What if it's too much for her? Then we'll be there when it's too much. Emma said, "That's the whole job, Marcus. We can't stop her from feeling things. We can only make sure she's not alone when she feels them." She wrapped both hands around her glass.
That's what nobody did for you. You know, when Denise died, everybody brought food and then everybody went home and you were alone with the biggest feeling of your life and a 2-year-old. I'm not going to let that happen to Lily or to you. Not ever again. Marcus looked at her across the dim kitchen at 2:00 in the morning and thought that he had spent four years believing love was a thing that had happened to him once and would never happen again and that he had been so completely catastrophically wrong.
The park meeting arrived. Viven was already there when they pulled up sitting on a bench. And the moment Marcus saw her stand, the moment he saw her fully in person, not a photograph, his breath left him because it wasn't just the eyes. It was the way she stood. It was something in the tilt of her head.
Genetics is a strange and cruel and beautiful thing. And here was a woman who had never met Denise, who had grown up 2 hours and one lifetime away, and who carried Denise in her body like an echo. Lily was holding Marcus' hand on one side and Emma's on the other. She stopped walking about 10 feet from the bench. Viven stopped, too.
She'd clearly been coached by the lawyer, clearly told not to rush, not to overwhelm, and Marcus watched her physically restrain herself, watched her lower herself slowly to a crouch so she wasn't towering over the child. "Hi," Vivian said. Her voice shook. "You must be Lily." Lily stared at her, stared at her eyes, and then Lily said in a very small voice, "You have my mommy's eyes." Vivian's face crumpled. She pressed her lips together and Marcus could see her fighting for control, fighting not to fall apart in front of a child she'd just met.
And she said, "I've been told that." I never got to meet your mommy, but I've been looking at her pictures and you look like her, too. You know, you have her smile. I do. Lily's voice cracked with hunger. Nobody ever tells me what I have that's hers.
Daddy says I have her stubborn, but that's not a nice thing. Viven laughed through her tears. Well, I'll tell you all the nice things. I promise. I've got a lot of catching up to do.
And then Lily let go of both her father's hand and Emma's hand, and she walked the 10 ft to the woman with her mother's eyes, and she just stood there in front of her. And Vivien didn't grab her, didn't pull her in, just stayed crouched and waited. And after a long moment, Lily reached out and touched Viven's face right below one eye, one small finger, like she was checking if it was real. Okay, Lily said finally with the enormous seriousness of a child making a decision. You can be my aunt.
Marcus stood there with Emma's hand gripping his so hard it hurt watching his daughter accept a piece of her lost mother back into her life and he thought his heart might simply not survive the fullness of it. They spent 2 hours at that park. Ta. By the end of it, Lily had shown Vivien her detective book, explained the entire plot of the dog series, introduced the concept of biscuit, and extracted a promise that Viven would come to her seventh birthday. Vivien, for her part, had told Lily three stories about Denise that Marcus had never heard because Carol had told them to her secondhand memories passed from a dying grandmother to a newfound aunt. and Marcus had listened to stories about his own wife that he didn't know.
Feeling the strange gift of getting a little more of her back four years too late from a stranger, it was by every measure a success, which is exactly why Marcus should have known it wouldn't stay that simple. The complication arrived 11 days later, and it arrived through the lawyer. Diane Aaphor called on a Wednesday afternoon and her voice had a careful quality that Marcus had learned to recognize as the sound of bad news being handled professionally. Mr. Williams, I need to make you aware of something and I want to be clear upfront that I don't think it's what it might sound like. A pause.
I received a letter today from an attorney representing a man named Gerald Reyes. Marcus frowned. Who? Carol's brother. Denise's uncle.
He's contesting the will. Marcus set down the pen he'd been holding. On what grounds? He's claiming Carol wasn't of sound mind when she made the changes in her final year. Specifically, the changes that added Viven to the trust and the provisions regarding Lily.
The lawyer's voice stayed level. He's arguing that Viven a dying, vulnerable woman to insert herself into a wealthy family. And Mr. Williams. I'll be blunt part of his filing names you. It suggests that you and Viven may be quote acting in concert to control Lily's trust for financial gain.
Marcus stood up so fast his chair rolled back and hit the wall. That's insane. I met Viven 3 weeks ago. I didn't even know she existed until you called me. I know that and I believe you.
But Gerald doesn't. Or more likely Gerald doesn't care because Gerald is Carol's next living blood relative. And if the will is thrown out, a significant portion of that estate could revert to him. The lawyer let that sit. This is about money, Mr. Williams.