Page 44 of The Seven Miracles of Beatrix Holland
Working through the orange flares of sunset, Beatrice had declined separate invites to dinner from both Minna and Cordelia. She shoved a piece of cheese and bread into her mouth when hunger pangs threatened to slow her down.
So she deserved this cup of tea on the deck. When she was done with it, she’d take her first houseboat shower and crawl into the brand-new sheets. Tonight, Beatrice was sure, sleep would come easily.
As she picked up her phone to check email, a text from Iris landed.
Your dad’s called me twice–didn’t leave a message–need me to talk to him for u?
She typed back,No thx, might get you to box up some clothes and household stuff for me tho.
Then, as if her father had heard her thinking about him, her phone buzzed in her hands, his photo on the screen.
Instead of declining his call—again—she answered.
“Dad.”
“Beatrice, oh, thank god. I thought you’d dropped off the face of the earth. Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me? Or respond to my texts? That’s not like you, Button. What’s wrong?”
When he finally paused for breath, Beatrice said, “I quit.”
“Quit what?”
“My job, Dad. I’m quitting my job.”
She heard a cough of surprise. “I don’t understand.”
“I found Cordelia.” The words slipped from her lips like razor blades. If she touched her mouth, would her fingers come away with blood? Each syllable was sharp. “I found your wife, too. Astrid. Did you even know you have agranddaughter?”
She didn’t know until she said the words that she’d still held a thin shred of hope—that he’d say he had no idea, what was she talking about?
But she could almost feel the pulse of his panic beat through the line.
“Oh, no.” His voice was a thin, thready breath.
“You lied.”
“Beatrice—”
“My whole life, you taught me one thing. You said right was right and wrong was wrong. Numbers never lie; that’s why they’re so beautiful. Humans do, but we never should. Butyoulied.”
“No—”
“And about the most important thing of all.” Beatrice’s chest hurt so much, she wanted to rip out her heart with her bare hands. “It was always me and you, until Naya came, and then it was the three of us. We were a family. Except we weren’t, because a family knows each other. They love each otherbecausethey know each other. I have a twin sister, Dad. How could you?”
The air on her father’s side of the line clattered, as if he was dropping things, many of them, one after another. “But I don’t understand. How did you find them?”
A miracle. “Doesn’t matter. Did you know they were here?”
“No. She never told me where they went. Listen very carefully to me. Astrid is dangerous.”
“She says youallowedher take Cordelia away from us. You really let that happen?”
The silence told her everything she needed to know.
So, even though her voice shook, she poured out the gasoline. “You hid my sister from me.” Then she lit the match. “I’ll never forgive you.”
Beatrice hung up as the life she’d known caught ablaze. It was too late to pull her heart from the fire.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
