The Better Liar(74)

“Wait, when did he marry her?” Mary asked. “That wasn’t how he met Mom.”

“No, this was Yvonne. They were together for five years or so, and then they got divorced. I don’t know what it was all about, exactly. He never liked to talk of it. But my personal thinking is that it was about you two.”

“But we didn’t exist,” I said.

Albert took another bite of fish and said through it, “He wanted children. I think that’s part of why he married Yvonne. She was very young when they married, twenty-one or so. But they never had any. I didn’t ask, but…” He shrugged. “Five years seems about right. You can’t try much harder than that.”

I stared at my plate. I hadn’t eaten any of my salad.

    I felt Mary’s eyes on me. “Did you know?” she asked. “About Yvonne?”

I shook my head.

I’d spent years with him in that house as he died. I was the only person who’d stuck around—the only one who’d showed up for him. Illness had given us time together that we’d never had before, long stretches of boredom that invited conversation. One night Rocky was on TV. He’d muted it, looked over at me—said, I should have married someone like you, Leslie. I was in love with your mother, but she was too fragile. I should have seen that. Should’ve looked for someone with a spine.

But he’d looked before. It wasn’t just Christine who had failed him. Yvonne had failed too.

Why hadn’t he told me that?

Albert and Mary had gone back to eating while I’d been lost in thought. They were almost done, wearing identical expressions of polite regret: how sad your father never told you, but you can’t change the past, what’s done is done, etc. I picked up my wineglass and set it back down again.

“Why didn’t he just leave everything to me?” I felt weightless again, as I had this morning. My ears ached.

Mary swallowed quickly and said, “Let’s talk about that some other time. Leslie, will you come to the bathroom with me?”

Albert wouldn’t look at me.

“I was the one who was there. She ran away.” I watched the top of his head as he examined the edge of the table. “Why would he put this clause in there, that we had to be here together to receive the money? Why wouldn’t he just leave it all to me?”

Albert sighed and put down his fork. “It’s not an unusual situation for a decedent to leave his estate in the hands of his attorney, rather than burden a family member with the role of executor. You have a baby, a full-time job…it was a good thing he did, not to put this all on your shoulders.”

“That’s not what I asked.” My tongue felt swollen. “Why did we both have to be here? Why not just mail her the check and be done with it?”

    Mary put her hand over mine. I felt her fingernails dig into my palm. “He was sick, Leslie.”

“I know he was sick.” I jerked my hand away and sat on it, flexing my fingers uncomfortably beneath my thigh. “I took care of him. He could barely eat. He could barely move or speak. He slept all the time. It spread to his lungs. He coughed up solids. I cleaned it out of the carpet. I helped him go to the bathroom and shower and brush his teeth. So…” I turned to Albert. “So I am just…just asking you. Why did he want her here now?”

His mouth trembled, and I thought he was close to giving me a real answer. Then, on the other side of me, I heard Mary say, “Thank God you’re here,” laughingly, and the waitress leaned over the table to take our plates, breaking the spell.

“Are you sure you’re finished?” the waitress asked me, glancing down at my barely disturbed plate.

I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. After a second, I felt her take the plate away.

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Albert said to me, touching my shoulder. “I really am. The truth is, I think Warren wanted you girls to spend some time together after so long apart. That’s all it was. Of course he trusted you and loved you both. Of course he did.”

I opened my eyes. Albert looked smaller, sitting there in his crumpled button-down, the collar gaping at his neck. Like my father’s shirts had, near the end.

Mary smiled at him. “Thank you so much for saying that. You have no idea how much that means, coming from such a close friend of his.”

Albert cleared his throat. “What a nice meal that was. I haven’t been here in a long while. I need to start coming back more often.” He patted his belly. “Well, all right. I suppose you’ve got to get home.”

“It’s past Eli’s bedtime,” Mary said. “If you want any time with him, Leslie, we do need to start getting ready.”

I stared back at her. She was still perfectly cheerful. Her lipstick was fresh, and there was a faint red stain on one of her front teeth. Had she put on a fresh coat just now? When?

    Albert leaned down and shuffled through the papers in his briefcase. “Aha! Well, here we go. You were in luck after all. The county notified us of receipt in time, and Angela made out your checks this afternoon.” He pulled out two envelopes, each stamped with the GRUNDMAN, JAMES & RODRIGUEZ letterhead. On the other side, his assistant had written our names in blue bubble letters: Leslie Flores and Robin Voigt.

I exhaled.