A man's voice. Older, rough around the edges. Who's asking? My name is Gerald Reyes. Marcus stood up from the couch.
Emma across the room saw his face change and went still. You're not supposed to be calling me, Marcus said carefully. We have lawyers for a reason. I'm going to hang up now. Wait, please.
Something in the man's voice stopped him. It wasn't the voice of a man on the attack. It was thinner than that, older than that. I'm not calling to threaten you. I'm calling because because I saw a picture today.
My lawyer sent me some things for tomorrow and there was a picture in there of the little girl, Lily. Marcus's grip tightened. You don't get to talk about my daughter. She looks just like Denise, Gerald said, and his voice cracked on the name. and Marcus stopped. I held that child, you know, when she was a baby at the funeral, Denise's funeral.
I held her and she was so small and I a long breath unsteady. I haven't seen her since 4 years. And I saw that picture today and she looks just like her mother. And I sat in my kitchen and I asked myself what the hell I think I'm doing. Marcus lowered himself slowly back onto the couch.
Mr. Williams. I'm 71 years old. Gerald said Carol was my baby sister and the truth is the truth. I've been too ashamed to say out loud. I didn't call her that last year because I was angry at her.
Some stupid thing from decades ago. Some old fight I can't even fully remember the shape of anymore. I let it sit. I let it rot. And then she died.
And I found out she'd changed her will. And instead of being sad, I got angry all over again. It was easier to be angry than to sit with the fact that I let my sister die without saying goodbye. His voice broke completely now. The lawsuit was never really about the money.
I have money. I've got more than I'll ever spend. It was about It was about being cut out. It was about her giving pieces of herself to a stranger. This Viven, a daughter she gave away when she wouldn't even take my calls, and I couldn't stand it.
Marcus sat in his living room and listened to a man he'd been preparing to go to war with fall apart on the phone. And something in him, the same thing that had grabbed his keys during an ice storm. The same thing that had checked on Ruth and Emma every week for years softened despite everything. Mr. Reyes, he said quietly, "Can I tell you something about Viven?" "Ah, yes. She spent 20 years looking for a family.
She didn't find Carol for the money she found her because she wanted to know where she came from and she sat with your sister in that last year. She was there when you weren't. Marcus said it gently, but he said it. Carol wasn't giving pieces of herself away to a stranger, sir. She was trying to fix something before she ran out of time.
She was trying to give a daughter she'd abandoned 40 years earlier, the family she never had. That's not manipulation. That's a dying woman trying to make things right. There was a long silence on the line and Lily Marcus went on my daughter. She met Viven 3 weeks ago and the first thing she said the very first thing was you have my mommy's eyes.
Because Lily doesn't remember her mother, Mr. Reyes. She was two. She has no memories of her own. And now for the first time in her life, she can look into a face that has a piece of Denise in it. His voice thickened.
You want to take that from her in a courtroom over an old fight you can't even remember. The silence stretched so long. Marcus wondered if the call had dropped. Then Gerald said it in a voice that had nothing left in it. I've been such a fool.
You've been a grieving man. Marcus said, "I know something about that. Grief makes you cruel to the wrong people. It made Carol cruel to me for 4 years. She blamed me for Denise dying.
Didn't speak to me. sent Lily birthday cards with no note. He paused. And then she died and left me a letter apologizing for all of it. So, I know exactly what you're feeling right now, Mr. Reyes. I know it because Carol felt it, too.
The difference is she waited until she was dying to fix it. You've got a chance to do it while you're still here. He heard the old man crying now, not bothering to hide it. What do I do? Gerald whispered.
How do I even after everything I filed all these terrible things my lawyer put in writing about you about her? How do I undo that? You drop the suit. Marcus said first thing tomorrow and then if you mean it, if you really mean it, you come meet your grand niece. Not through lawyers as a person.