those years ago, she hadn’t been paid much.
“Can I ask what this is all about?” Brandon asked.
Ember stopped midway up the front path to Lacy’s house and turned to Brandon. “I’m sorry—of course. A friend had a baby that she was told had died in childbirth, but she recently learned that it was a lie.”
He said nothing at first, just studied her. After a minute or two he said, “That really sucks. How long ago was this?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
“And your friend, how is she handling it?”
“She’s devastated, but wants to find her child.”
“Fourteen years is a long time. How does she know if her kid is still around?”
“I don’t know, but that won’t stop her or the father.”
“They’re married?”
“No, but they’ve recently reconnected.”
Brandon shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Sounds like something on those soaps I see the nuns watching when they don’t think anyone is around.”
Ember looked at him from the corner of her eye and smiled. “And yet you seem to know enough about the plots to comment.”
His grin came in a flash. “Guilty pleasure.”
“Let’s get burgers at that place you took me to, once we get done with this. My treat.”
“You liked it there?” he asked.
“Guilty pleasure,” Ember said, and got a laugh in response.
Lacy wasn’t what Ember was expecting. She was in her late fifties, heavy, and with enough gray hair to add a few more years to her age. Her home was as rundown on the inside as it was on the outside. She didn’t look pleased to see them and Ember suspected that she, like Brandon, liked her soaps and they were intruding on them.
“What do you want?”
How to put it? Ember decided straight up was the best plan.
“Close to fourteen years ago a child was born to a seventeen-year-old girl, a child she was told died in birth, but has now learned survived.”
Ember was about to continue, but Lacy’s face went completely white. She looked as if she might faint. She opened the door wider before she said, “Please come in.”
They settled in her kitchen, but Lacy couldn’t seem to keep still and paced in front of her stove.
“I’ve been waiting every day for this moment. I was in the middle of a nasty divorce back then. My ex was getting everything and then some guy offered me twenty grand to just turn my back once the baby was born. Every day I thought about what I did to that poor girl and that baby, and for what? I quit my job because I couldn’t sustain the lie.”
“And Nora?” Ember asked.
“She was my contact and the one to forge the documents and slip the baby from the ward. She never told me how much she was offered, but I had a feeling it was significantly more than I got.”
“Do you have any idea who approached you?”
“It was a man who arranged everything, but he only ever talked to Nora and she filled me in.”
“How were you paid?” Brandon asked.
“At a bar here in Queens—Polly’s. A woman called to tell me they had an envelope with my name on it behind the bar.” She stopped her pacing to look at Ember before she asked, “Are you the girl?”
“No, but she’s a friend of mine.”
“I hope she finds him. He was a beautiful baby.”
Tears welled in Ember’s eyes. “The baby was a boy?”
“Yes.”
They started to leave when Ember heard herself asking, “What happened to Nora?”
“Cancer. She died a few months later.”
After they left Lacy’s, Brandon and Ember went to lunch as promised before she sent him home in a cab. She stood outside the restaurant and reached for her phone. She couldn’t get in touch with Darcy, so she called Lucien. He answered on the first ring.
“Ember?”
“Lucien, hi.”
“I’ve got you on speaker. Trace is here.”
“Sweetheart, is everything okay?” Trace said.
“Yes. I’ve been doing some research and I found out the names of the two nurses who were with Darcy when she delivered. The one, Nora Jerkins, died, but I just came from Lacy’s house. She never saw the man, but she was paid out of a bar called Polly’s in Queens. Twenty grand to look the other way.”
Ember heard Lucien swearing softly and she couldn’t blame him. Her cussing wouldn’t be soft.
“Thanks, Ember. That’s the first break we’ve had.”
“I have one other piece of information.”
“Okay?”
“It was a boy. You have a son, Lucien.”
There was silence over the line for a minute before he spoke, and when he did, his voice was