By one-thirty, she had been called a con artist, an abandoned heiress, a planted actress, a hotel employee, a criminal, and Julian Mercer’s “secret love child.” People argued about whether her blouse was designer. Someone found Verdant House’s business page and posted screenshots of arrangements Leah had designed.
Tessa called again.
This time Leah answered.
“Please tell me you’re not alone,” Tessa said.
“I’m alone.”
“That wasn’t the requested answer.”
“I’m in my apartment. The door is locked.”
“I’m coming over.”
“It’s late.”
“I work in emergency veterinary care. Late is when people bring in dogs that ate batteries. Your schedule does not frighten me.”
Chap 4
“You have work tomorrow.”
“So do you.”
“Apparently not.”
Tessa went quiet.
Leah regretted saying it. She was not angry at Tessa, but anger needed somewhere to land and friendship often looked dangerously sturdy.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No, you’re not. You’re in shock.”
“I’m not in shock.”
“You watched a billionaire discover he might be your father after his wife dumped your purse on a ballroom floor.”
“He’s not a billionaire.”
“Fine. A deeply upsetting multimillionaire.”
Despite herself, Leah made a sound that was almost a laugh.
Tessa heard it and softened.
“I’m bringing food.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I’m not bringing it because I trust your judgment.”
Tessa arrived twenty minutes later wearing pink scrub pants, a black sweatshirt, and rain boots. She carried two paper bags and a bottle of dish soap because she had stopped at a pharmacy and forgotten what Leah actually needed.
She set the dish soap on the counter.
“I panicked.”
Leah looked at it.
“We were low.”
“You were not.”
“I could sense it.”
They ate fries at the kitchen table while the locket lay between them.
Tessa did not touch it. She studied the photograph through the cloudy glass.
“You look like her,” she said.
“Everyone online thinks I look like him.”
“You have his eyebrows.”
“I’ve always hated my eyebrows.”
“That seems like relevant evidence.”
Leah pushed the fries away.
Tessa’s humor faded. “What did Rosa tell you about your father?”
“That Claire wouldn’t say his name.”
“Ever?”
“She said he wasn’t part of our lives.”
“Did she say why?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“Not after I was twelve.”
At twelve, Leah had found a school form requiring her father’s medical history. Rosa was washing dishes when Leah asked. Her back stiffened. A plate slipped from her hands and cracked in the sink.
“Some people give you their name,” Rosa had said. “Some people give you work to do. Don’t confuse the two.”
Leah had taken the answer as bitterness. Rosa distrusted men who owned more than two pairs of dress shoes. She distrusted insurance agents, landlords, municipal clerks, and anyone who described a fee as nominal. Her suspicion had always seemed general.
Now Leah remembered the plate.
“I should look through her things,” she said.
Tessa glanced toward the closed bedroom door.
“Tonight?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“But there might be papers.”
“There might also be six hundred grocery receipts and every birthday card anyone ever sent her.”
“That too.”
“You don’t have to solve this before sunrise.”
Leah touched the edge of the locket.
“I don’t know what ‘this’ is.”
At seven-thirty the next morning, Verdant House fired her.
They did it through a video call. Leah’s supervisor, Mark, sat beside the company’s owner in a conference room with a decorative wall of artificial moss behind them.
The owner said the situation was temporary.
Mark said it was not termination, exactly.
Leah asked whether she was being paid.
They looked at each other.
The owner explained that Verdant House had received dozens of messages and two clients had threatened to cancel events. Until the facts became clearer, the company needed to protect the team.
“What facts?” Leah asked.
“The accusation.”
“The bracelet was found.”
“Yes, but the larger situation is complicated.”
“My parentage?”
The owner’s smile collapsed. “We’re not making assumptions.”
“You’re suspending me because someone accused me of stealing something that was never stolen.”
“We’re pausing assignments because your presence may draw media attention.”
“You posted my photograph last month.”
“We’ve removed it.”
Mark looked miserable. He was not cruel, which made the conversation worse. Cruelty would have given Leah something clean to resist. Instead, she watched a decent man choose a paycheck over defending her and knew she might have done the same.