Chapter 2 - THE NAME THAT WAS ERASED|
The word sister traveled through the ballroom more quickly than any rumor Vivian had ever spread.
Someone lowered a champagne glass. Another guest reached for a phone. Near the staircase, a photographer lifted his camera before Catherine Ashcom ordered him to put it down.
Vivian stared at Julian.
"What did you just say?"
Julian did not look at her.
"Mother, take everyone out of this room."
"This is my engagement party!" Vivian protested.
"Then consider it the first thing that's gone wrong tonight."
His voice remained quiet, but the guards stationed beside the ballroom doors moved immediately. Guests began filing into the adjoining reception hall, whispering as they passed Nomi.
Some looked at her with pity. Others looked at her as though the scar had turned her into a spectacle they had paid to see.
Nomi reached for the torn fabric at her back.
Eleanor removed her evening shawl and placed it around Nomi's shoulders.
"You're freezing."
"I'm fine."
"No, darling. You're standing in a room full of strangers who just watched someone humiliate you. You don't have to pretend you're fine."
The tenderness in the woman's voice unsettled Nomi more than Vivian's cruelty had.
She had not heard anyone call her darling without expecting something in return since she was a child.
Catherine approached them.
"Eleanor, I think we should speak privately."
"We've been speaking privately for twenty-six years," Eleanor replied. "That hasn't served any of us particularly well."
Catherine's mouth tightened.
Julian noticed the exchange.
"What aren't you telling us?"
His mother looked toward Nomi, then toward Eleanor.
"Not here."
Nomi pulled the shawl more tightly around herself.
"I'm not going anywhere with anyone who refuses to explain what's happening."
Julian faced her.
"That's fair."
He turned to a nearby member of staff.
"Bring a clean jacket and a first-aid kit. Then prepare the library."
Nomi shook her head.
"I don't need your clothes, Mr. Ashcom. I need to know why your family thinks it has the right to discuss me as though I'm an object."
A flicker of respect crossed his face.
"You're right. I'm sorry."
Vivian gave a disbelieving laugh.
"Julian, have you lost your mind? She deliberately provoked me!"
"By doing what?"
"By flirting with you!"
"I didn't see her flirt with anyone."
"She smiled at you!"
Julian turned toward his fiancée.
"And you tore her clothes off in front of four hundred people. Which one of those actions do you believe was unforgivable?"
Vivian opened her mouth, then closed it.
Eleanor gently touched Nomi's elbow.
"Will you allow me to explain what I know?"
Nomi studied the older woman.
"Start with the hospital."
Eleanor drew a shaky breath.
"In 2000, my daughter Margaret was twenty-two. She was engaged to a man named Thomas Dwart, a physician who worked at a private medical center outside Philadelphia. They were expecting a child. A girl."
Nomi's stomach tightened at the surname.
"Dwart?"
Eleanor nodded.
"Thomas's family had a small medical practice. He and Margaret intended to raise their baby there, away from the attention our families attracted."
"What happened?"
"Margaret went into labor during a winter storm. The clinic lost power. There was an emergency in the delivery room, and a fire broke out in an adjoining storage area. Margaret was moved to another hospital. The baby was listed as stillborn."
Eleanor's voice faltered.
"We buried a small coffin. I was told not to open it because of the condition of the remains."
Nomi felt her fingers go numb.
"I was raised in foster care. I was never told I had a father."
Eleanor looked directly at her.
"Thomas disappeared three months after the funeral. Margaret died the following year. Her death was ruled an accident, but I never believed the investigation was complete."
Catherine finally spoke.
"You're leaving out the Ashcom connection."
Eleanor turned on her.
"Because your husband threatened to destroy every record connected to that clinic."
The room went silent.
Julian stared at his mother.
"Father was involved?"
Catherine's composure fractured.
"Your father had financial interests in the medical center. He funded the emergency renovation after the fire. He claimed it was a charitable donation."
"Why would he care whether Eleanor's granddaughter survived?"
Catherine lowered her eyes.
"Because Margaret had something he wanted."
Nomi gripped the shawl.
"What?"
Catherine looked at Julian.
"A document that would have transferred a fortune out of the Ashcom family."
May you like
Then she turned toward Nomi.
"And the child who disappeared was the only person legally entitled to inherit it."
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