to her, pressing up against Grace’s side as Joaquin sat down on the edge of the bed next to them. “I’m sorry if we made you feel like you couldn’t tell us,” Maya murmured. “I’m so sorry, Grace. We both are. We didn’t know.”
“It’s okay,” Grace whispered, then sipped at the water. It felt so good and cold and clean that it was almost enough to wash everything else away. “I should have told you sooner.” She glanced toward Joaquin. “I didn’t want you to think that I left her like our mom left you.”
Joaquin just looked at her like she had three heads. “I would never think that,” he said. “Not in a million years.”
“Can I ask a question, though?” Maya asked.
“Of course.” Grace sipped at her water again.
“Is her name Milly?” Maya sounded very, very small. “That’s what it said in the email.”
Grace nodded, digging around under her shirt until she found the necklace, then pulled it out. “They named her Amelía. Milly for short. But I used to call her Peach when I was pregnant with her.” She pressed her thumb against the charms, separating them a little. “It’s not my grandmother’s. I bought it online.”
Maya reached over and took the chain in her hands. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “She’s beautiful, too. She looked like you in that photo.”
“Where’s the dad?” Joaquin asked. “Is it Adam?”
“God, no,” Grace said, sitting up a little bit more. “It was my boyfriend at the time, Max.” Grace closed her eyes briefly against the stab of pain, and Joaquin reached over and put his hand on her arm as Maya nuzzled her chin against her shoulder.
“Asshole,” Maya murmured.
“His loss,” Joaquin said.
“I needed him, you know?” Grace twisted the charms around and around, tangling the chain around her neck. “I needed him and he wasn’t there. He got crowned homecoming king the night she was born. He wasn’t even with me in the room.”
Maya muttered something under her breath that did not sound complimentary.
“What?”
“Nothing. Do you get to see her? I mean, if the parents are sending you updates . . .”
“We agreed to two visits a year, but I don’t know if I can do it,” Grace said. “I don’t know if I can see her again. I don’t know if that’s what she needs.”
“What about what you need, though?” Joaquin asked. His hand was still on Grace’s arm, as if he was afraid that she would suddenly sprout wings and fly out of the room.
Grace just shrugged. “It’s not about me.”
“This is why you need to find our mom,” Maya said softly. “That’s why you keep bringing it up.”
Grace bit her lip so she wouldn’t burst into tears again. She could tell that Maya and Joaquin were exchanging a glance over her head. It made her feel small when they did that, and she sort of liked it and sort of hated it.
“I’ve been trying,” she admitted. “But there’s nothing. The letters my parents sent through the lawyer got returned; they don’t have a working number. She’s a ghost.”
Maya shifted a little. “No. She’s not.”
“What?” Joaquin said. “What are you talking about?”
Maya looked at both of them, then started to climb off the bed. “C’mon,” she said. “Follow me.”
“Maya,” Grace said, and the sound of her own voice scared her. “What are you doing?”
“Come on,” Maya just said again. “Before Lauren and my dad get back.”
Joaquin helped Grace off the bed, then kept his arm around her shoulders as they followed Maya downstairs into what looked like an office. Grace had never seen her look so solemn before, and it scared her. “Maya,” she said again.
Maya just ushered them inside, then shut the door and locked it before going over to a file cabinet. “When we were little,” she said, “Lauren and I used to play Detectives. We’d hide around the house, pretend that we were finding clues, you know, stupid shit. But then, one time, we found this.” She opened the cabinet and pulled out a small black box with a combination lock on it.
Grace felt her heart move from her chest to her throat.
“I knew it was about me,” Maya said, setting it down on the desk. “So one night, after everyone was asleep, I came downstairs and worked on the combination until it opened.”
She was spinning the lock as if she had done so a million times before. Grace wondered if maybe she had.
“There we go,” she said as it popped open. Then she reached inside and