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“Mom? What is this?” Phoebe’s voice shook. “Isn’t that the heirloom necklace?”
Maya felt like crying. “That’s the necklace, all right.”
“And Olivia? She’s the baby in the photograph?”
“I think so.” Maya squeezed her eyes shut. “I found some adoption papers yesterday. It looks like Olivia is my sister.”
“So, she’s had the necklace this entire time?” Phoebe asked.
Maya remembered Olivia’s earnest smile last week when she’d come to the door with a lie. “I think she stole the necklace.” She went on to explain everything about Rainey, Olivia, and Olivia’s supposed plan to take photographs of the Albright mansion. “I don’t know why she didn’t just tell me who she was,” Maya finished. “I would have fallen apart with love for her. I would have told her I always wanted a sister!”
Phoebe was speechless. “This is the most insane story I’ve ever heard.”
Maya stood up and paced along the rug near the fire.
“How did she know where the heirloom necklace was?” Phoebe demanded.
“I have no idea,” Maya said. “I just can’t stop thinking about what it must have felt like for Olivia, coming into the Albright mansion for the first time. She’s known about the adoption for years. It must have been so alienating to learn about me. About my aunt’s offer of the inheritance. No wonder she wants to pit herself against me.”
“She’s angry.”
“Anyone would be.” Maya collapsed back on the couch. “What do you think I should do?”
“How much do you care about the money?” Phoebe asked.
“Very little right now. I want to sit with Olivia. I want to explain myself. I want to build a relationship with her, if possible. Then again, if she already stole from me, we’re not off to a good start.”
“Maybe she isn’t the kind of woman you want to know,” Phoebe suggested.
Maya felt a pang of regret. Perhaps Phoebe was right. But everything felt far more complicated than that.
After she got off the phone, Maya sent the article to Brad, who called her as soon as he could.
“I knew Rainey was up to something,” he spat, sounding angrier than Maya had ever heard him. “And I knew I should have followed Olivia through the house! I would have caught her taking the heirloom.”
Maya sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I mean, technically, the inheritance and the heirloom belong to her, too.”
“They don’t,” Brad said. “Your Aunt Veronica passed this all on to you.”
“Providing I find the necklace,” Maya reminded him. “And I didn’t. Olivia did.”
Brad was quiet for a moment. “The kids are coming back from recess right now,” he said, his voice heavy with regret. “I’ll come over after school, and we can talk about this more. All right?”
Maya had to stop herself from telling Brad she loved him. It was too soon. But his support, just then, meant the world.
That afternoon, unable to stop herself, Maya drove out to the nursing home to beg the nurses to see her Aunt Veronica. But yet again, they told her she was too ill for visitors.
“We think she’s nearly out of the woods,” the head nurse explained. “By Christmas, she should be up for it. But we have to be very careful right now. One false move, and she could get even sicker.”
Maya thanked them, returned to Phoebe’s car, and placed her forehead on the steering wheel. After a series of deep breaths, she grabbed her wallet and removed Olivia’s business card from within the folds. Why hadn’t she thought of this before?
But Olivia’s phone rang and rang. It was clear she didn’t want to answer it. Maya wrote her an email, begging her to reach out again. It was all she could do.
Before she pulled out of the nursing home parking lot, Phoebe texted her again.
PHOEBE: The articles are all over the internet now.
PHOEBE: People have really run with the story. They’re calling her the “Anastasia” of Upstate New York.
