After Anna(9)
‘I’m so happy for you, honey!’ Kathy grinned, pushing her short, dark hair from her eyes. ‘Anna was just a baby the last time I saw her. She was all eyes, that pretty blue!’
‘Right? Hold on. I have some pictures.’ Maggie slid her cell phone from her pocket as they walked along, then scrolled to her photos, and showed Kathy a picture of Anna at six months old, sitting in her lap. Anna’s blue eyes were large and round, and her toothless smile took up her entire face. She had dimples that matched Maggie’s. Maggie was smiling in the picture, too, but she knew it was forced, masking her depression.
‘How cute is she?’ Kathy leaned over, without breaking stride.
Maggie eyed the photo, which brought back so many emotions, both good and bad. Kathy had gone to Connecticut to take care of her sick mother during Maggie’s postpartum psychosis, and they had stayed in touch, even if Maggie had soft-pedaled how bad it was getting, not wanting to alarm Kathy when she had so much on her plate already.
Kathy swiped the screen to the next photo of Anna, dressed up in a pink ruched dress with puffy sleeves. ‘And look at this one! She’s beyond!’
Maggie remembered the day, when she’d taken Anna to a friend’s gender-reveal party. All the other moms had been so happy, but she’d felt miserable, then felt guilty for feeling miserable, a double-whammy of self-loathing.
‘And look, when she was really little.’ Kathy swiped to the earlier photo of Anna in a diaper, sleeping in her crib. She had on a yellow onesie that matched her yellow-plaid bumpers. ‘Ah, I remember bumpers. You’re not supposed to use them anymore, did you know that? You’re supposed to let the baby sleep in a box.’ Kathy looked over, then frowned. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Sure, fine –’ Maggie started to say, then stopped herself. ‘Not really. I’ll have to explain to Anna the whole postpartum thing. I don’t know how much she knows, if anything. She said she wants to understand what happened, with me.’
‘Oh, honey. She’ll understand.’ Kathy touched Maggie’s shoulder, with a sympathetic frown. ‘Don’t worry about it. Just be happy about this, it’s great. Show me another picture.’
‘I don’t have any more. Florian said he would give me copies but he never did.’
‘Oh, what a jerk! He’s unforgivable.’ Kathy loved to hate on Florian, and Maggie used to love dishing with her, but she was beyond that now, supposedly.
‘Let’s not start on him.’
‘Why not?’ Kathy shot back. ‘Getting custody of Anna was just about power for him. That’s why he dumped her in boarding school and went flying around the world with his girlfriends. It would be one thing if you had still been sick and he was truly afraid for her welfare, but you had recovered by then. Did Anna tell him that she was going to call you?’
‘Yes. He didn’t think that I would come.’
‘How dare he! Of course you would! You’re her mother, whether he likes it or not.’ Kathy scowled. ‘I wonder what he’s up to these days.’
‘Being rich, I assume. He didn’t work after he sold the app.’ Maggie remembered Florian had been so driven, then he hit the techie’s dream, an IPO jackpot. She’d put him through business school by working in Penn’s registrar’s office, delaying her plans to go to law school. But she had never been more than a means to an end for him, and she was more alone married to him than she had been single, especially after the baby came along.
‘Did he get remarried?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Don’t you stalk him online?’
‘Not anymore.’
‘You’re not the woman I thought you were.’ Kathy smiled. ‘I still stalk Ted. It’s fun. Remember when he broke his ankle skiing? I couldn’t stop laughing. I was delighted.’ Kathy slid the phone from Maggie’s hand. ‘Gimme.’
‘Why?’
‘I’ll get his address, and we’ll make him give you back those pictures.’ Kathy scrolled through Maggie’s phone, logging into the Internet.
‘I’m not going to write him.’
‘If you don’t, I will.’ Kathy typed into the phone.
Maggie looked away, walking along. The sun was peeking over the treeline, bathing everything in amber. Bees, butterflies, and white moths fluttered over the tall grass in the meadow. Birds chirped, and a goldfinch flew by, its wings flapping to reveal a bright yellow body. There was so much life in nature, it surprised her every time. And she was about to reconnect with Anna. Mother and daughter together, the way it was supposed to be.
Kathy gasped. ‘Oh no. Look.’
‘What?’ Maggie turned to see Kathy holding up the phone screen. Online was a news story dated last month, March 8, with the headline:
TECH MOGUL FLORIAN DESROCHES AND FAMILY KILLED IN PLANE CRASH OUTSIDE LYON
Chapter Seven
Noah, After
TRIAL, DAY 6
Noah watched as Linda hustled to the jury box, all five-feet-three inches of her, short but nonetheless powerful. Her navy-blue suit was tailored closely around her superfit frame, and she must have been a runner because she had fast-twitch muscles in her calves, which Noah identified from his days running cross-country.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Linda Swain-Pettit and I represent the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In other words, I represent the citizens of this great state, or you. The purpose of a closing argument is to review the important testimony you have heard in this courtroom. The judge will tell you when he charges you on the law that the Commonwealth retains the burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I believe we have more than met that burden and I will set forth the testimony and evidence that supports my statement. Excuse me a moment.’