Chapter 2 - THE MAID KEVIN THOUGHT HE HAD NEVER MET
Annie looked as shocked as he was.
“I don’t know.”
Kevin held up the card.
“Your full name is in my wife’s handwriting.”
“I can see that.”
“You worked here before?”
“Three shifts.”
He stared.
“When?”
“During Mrs. Vale’s last summer.”
Kevin genuinely did not remember her.
That hurt more than he expected.
Annie explained.
She had been employed by the domestic staffing agency the Vales used for temporary help.
One of the regular housekeepers had surgery.
Annie covered three Saturday shifts.
“I barely spoke to Mrs. Vale.”
“What did you talk about?”
“The boys.”
Jordan and Justin were four then.
Claire had been weak after another round of treatment.
Kevin had been in San Francisco negotiating an acquisition.
Annie found Jordan crying beneath the dining table because one of the longtime staff members had told him “big boys don’t upset sick mothers.”
“I sat down there with him.”
Kevin’s expression changed.
“You told him what?”
“That he was allowed to be scared.”
Annie looked uncomfortable.
“I wasn’t trying to interfere.”
“What happened after?”
“Mrs. Vale heard us.”
Claire later asked Annie whether her agency ever provided long-term household placements.
Annie said yes.
Then nothing came of it.
Three months later Claire died.
Seven months after that, the Vale estate manager called Annie’s agency and offered her a permanent housekeeping position.
Annie assumed it was coincidence.
Kevin looked at the card again.
It clearly wasn’t.
Justin whispered from the bed:
“Mom liked Annie.”
Annie turned.
“You don’t remember me.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, sweetheart. You were little.”
Justin frowned.
“You gave me orange juice in the blue cup.”
Annie’s mouth opened.
She remembered.
Kevin sat down.
The room felt less stable by the minute.
He opened the leather notebook.
Claire’s handwriting filled the first page.
Not sentimental memories.
Schedules.
Names.
Instructions.
Jordan hates total darkness but will lie about being afraid.
Justin wakes when he hears adults arguing.
Do not tell them I am “sleeping” after I die. They understand sleep.
Kevin closed his eyes.
He and his mother had told the twins exactly that.
Mommy went to sleep peacefully.
Claire had anticipated it.
He kept reading.
Let them say cancer.
Let them say dead.
Do not make my death a forbidden word because Kevin cannot stand hearing it.
His face burned.
Annie quietly looked away.
Kevin turned another page.
At the top:
PEOPLE WHO LET THE BOYS HAVE THEIR OWN FEELINGS.
Mara Vale.
Dr. Ellis.
Annie Brooks.
Kevin stared at the last name.
May you like
Claire had known Annie for less than three days.
And somehow trusted something about her that Kevin had taken nearly a year to notice.
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