Chapter 17 - Lucy’s Empty Chair
The old restaurant had been closed for eleven years.
Its sign remained above the doorway.
ROMANO'S KITCHEN.
Half the letters were missing.
Daniel stood outside staring.
"This is where we used to eat."
Gabriel pulled at the door.
Unlocked.
Sarah pushed past both men.
"Lucy!"
Darkness.
Then a light came on in the rear.
A small table.
Three plates.
One bowl of pasta.
And Lucy.
She sat in a chair holding her rabbit.
Sarah ran.
"Lucy!"
Lucy smiled.
"Mama."
Sarah dropped to her knees and hugged her.
"Don't ever do that again."
"I'm sorry."
"What were you thinking?"
"Aunt Emily said Daddy wanted a surprise."
Emily hadn't.
Daniel looked around.
"Who brought you here?"
"A lady."
"What lady?"
Lucy pointed toward the kitchen.
Everyone tensed.
A woman stepped out.
Around sixty.
Gray hair.
Daniel stared.
"Mom?"
Sarah looked at him.
"You have got to be kidding me."
Daniel's mother had supposedly died when he was eighteen.
The woman began crying.
"Daniel."
He didn't move.
Sarah looked at Gabriel.
"Nobody is ever allowed to tell me they're dead again."
Gabriel nodded.
"Reasonable."
Daniel whispered:
"Mom?"
The woman approached.
"Eleanor Mercer."
Daniel backed away.
"I buried you."
Eleanor shook her head.
"No."
"I went to your funeral."
"You went to an empty coffin."
Daniel laughed helplessly.
"Of course."
Sarah almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Eleanor looked at Lucy.
"I never meant to frighten her."
Sarah stepped between them.
"You took my daughter."
"I asked her to come."
"She's seven."
"I know."
"Then you don't ask a seven-year-old to leave a restaurant without her mother."
Eleanor lowered her eyes.
"You're right."
Lucy tugged Sarah's sleeve.
"She said she's Grandma."
Sarah looked at Daniel.
He was still staring.
"Why?"
That was all he could say.
Eleanor sat.
"Victor."
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"He helped you disappear too?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"Antonio did."
Gabriel stared.
"My father?"
Eleanor nodded.
"Twenty-three years ago."
Daniel looked sick.
"Why?"
"Your father and mine had business connections."
Daniel frowned.
"Our father was a mechanic."
"He was also laundering money."
Daniel sat down.
Another family myth collapsing.
Eleanor continued.
"When your father tried to leave, Victor threatened us."
"So you disappeared."
"Antonio arranged it."
"And left me and Emily behind?"
Eleanor began crying.
"I was told both of you would follow."
Daniel stared.
"We never knew."
"I discovered that years later."
"Why didn't you come back?"
"By then Emily was missing and you were working around Victor."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"So you stayed dead."
"Yes."
Sarah shook her head.
"This family needs therapy."
Gabriel almost smiled.
Daniel looked toward Lucy.
"Why now?"
Eleanor reached into her bag.
"Because Marcus is gone."
"He was arrested an hour ago."
"I know."
"How?"
"I've been helping Agent Carter."
Everyone stared.
Eleanor smiled sadly.
"Daniel, where do you think Carter learned enough to believe your files?"
Daniel looked stunned.
"You?"
"For fifteen years."
Sarah sat.
Of all the surprises, this was becoming absurd.
Eleanor had lived under another identity in Maine.
Near Cape Elizabeth.
The lighthouse.
Daniel stared.
"You sent Antonio the postcard."
"No."
"Then who?"
Eleanor looked at him.
"You did."
Daniel frowned.
"I didn't."
"You were staying with me after the accident."
Silence.
Daniel looked confused.
"No."
Eleanor's face softened.
"You don't remember?"
Sarah's heart tightened.
Eleanor explained.
After Antonio pulled Daniel from the wreck, he was taken secretly to a clinic.
He woke disoriented.
Memory gaps.
Head trauma.
Antonio feared Victor.
Eleanor came from Maine.
She took Daniel away.
"For six months, you barely remembered Sarah."
Sarah covered her mouth.
Daniel stared.
"I don't remember you."
"I know."
Eleanor continued.
"One day you remembered Lucy's name."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Then Sarah."
"Yes."
"Why didn't I go home?"
"You wanted to."
"What stopped me?"
"You discovered Reynolds had leaked their location."
Daniel looked toward Sarah.
"And I thought going home would expose them."
Eleanor nodded.
"You sent Antonio the postcard."
They're safe. Don't come looking.
Daniel whispered, "I meant Sarah and Lucy."
"Yes."
Sarah began crying.
For the first time, the first year made sense.
Not a cowardice.
Injury.
Confusion.
Fear.
"But the other four years?" Sarah asked.
Daniel looked at her.
"My fault."
Eleanor nodded sadly.
"Yes."
Daniel accepted it.
No excuse.
Sarah appreciated that more than any elaborate justification.
Eleanor placed another envelope on the table.
"Daniel left this with me during his recovery."
He opened it.
A note to himself.
If memory returns, go home.
If fear tells you not to, remember Lucy deserves a father more than you deserve certainty.
Daniel stared.
"I ignored my own advice."
Sarah took his hand.
"People do."
Eleanor looked toward Lucy.
"I wanted her to bring you here because this place mattered."
Sarah frowned.
"You could have called."
"I was afraid Daniel wouldn't come."
Daniel laughed.
"Apparently manipulation runs in the family."
Eleanor accepted the criticism.
Lucy looked at the bowl.
"Can we eat?"
Everyone laughed.
Even Sarah.
It was impossible not to.
Daniel sat beside his daughter.
Gabriel opposite.
Sarah next to him.
One bowl.
Three plates had become five.
Then six.
Daniel looked around the ruined restaurant.
"This is terrible pasta."
Lucy took a bite.
"I like it."
Gabriel smiled.
"You have your father's taste."
Later, while Lucy slept against Daniel's shoulder, Sarah stood outside with Eleanor.
"You lost twenty-three years."
Eleanor nodded.
"So did my children."
"Do you regret it?"
"Every day."
Sarah looked through the window at Daniel.
"I don't know whether I can forgive him."
Eleanor didn't tell her she should.
Instead she said:
"Forgiveness isn't the price of loving someone."
Sarah turned.
Eleanor continued.
"You can love him and still be angry."
Sarah's eyes filled.
"You can rebuild without pretending nothing broke."
Sarah looked toward Lucy.
Daniel gently adjusted her yellow raincoat around her shoulders.
For the first time, Sarah saw a future that wasn't about discovering more secrets.
A future about choices.
The next morning Daniel was due to speak with Agent Carter.
Reynolds would surrender formally.
Antonio would provide evidence against old associates.
Victor would cooperate.
Marcus would face charges.
The old world was collapsing.
But Sarah had one decision no court could make.
May you like
Whether Daniel Mercer had a place in the new one.
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