Thursday, Noon
Kerry was trying to keep awake while summarizing a deposition transcript. She was a summer associate at the firm where Suzanne had worked as a paralegal. She’d done the Big Law Summer associate gig after first year and she was happy where she was. She picked up her phone when her Mom called.
“Hey, Mom, what’s up?”
“I’m sitting with Suzanne’s mother.”
Kerry was awake. And silent.
“Kerry?”
“What is going on? Where are you?”
“We’re at a hotel in White Plains. I need you to stay calm and be quiet for a minute.”
Eileen told of the events, beginning when she called Kate, ending with Kate’s confession in the hotel lobby.
“Does Mary know?”
“You first. Kerry, last night this was flying out of control. I was flying out of control. I didn’t know whether this woman would have the nerve to contact us ever again. And last night I don’t know whether I even cared. But this whole thing started because of Suzanne. This is all about Suzanne.”
“Mom, I need to think. I’m sure Carol”—the partner to whom Kerry reported—”will not have a problem with me cutting out now. I can be home in an hour. Does that work?”
Now, an hour later, Kate and Eileen sat in their daughters’ Tuckahoe home waiting for Kerry. Eileen too had gotten the okay from her boss to leave early and she and Kate had taken the train down to Tuckahoe and walked to the house. Eileen spent the time telling stories of what Suzanne had done since coming to New York, and Kate listened stoically. She took in the photos in the living room.
Her brain in turmoil since her Mom’s call, Kerry came through the door. She stopped when she saw her. She looked like what Kerry expected. Nice, tasteful blue dress with simple jewelry and flats, her well-cut blonde hair hanging just above her collar. Neither knew what to say. Kerry, though, felt a momentary glare come her way and then, as if Mrs. Nelson had gotten control of it, a tentative smile and a “You must be Kerry,” which was returned with a “Yes.”
Kerry thought of what she would say from the moment she hung up with her Mom. But as happened when her mind went blank, she had to trust her instincts to say what needed saying.
“Mrs. Nelson, I had no idea until my Mom called that there had been any contact with you at least since Suzanne”—intentionally using the version of the name she rarely did—”and I have been engaged. I don’t know what you expect coming here like this and I don’t know what my Mom expected by contacting you.
“I have neither the time nor the inclination to go down some rabbit hole with you. My Mom, though, insists that this is 100% about Suzanne and I agree. Frankly, I probably owe you a debt of gratitude. Without you and her father she probably would be sitting right now”—she checked her watch to calculate California time—”in some law office in San Francisco after finishing her second year at Stanford Law and neither of us would know of the other’s existence. So, thank you for that.” She spit out that last part.
Neither of the other two women spoke.
“Beyond that, I know that Suzanne misses you. She won’t admit it even to me but I know it’s true. I mean, she loves my Mom, but she misses you.”
Kerry plopped down into one of the wing chairs, facing the other two.
Her Mom spoke. “Kerry. If you want to speak to me alone, I’m happy to. If you want to speak with, er, Kate here alone, that’s fine too. But here’s the bottom line. I don’t think Kate accepts her daughter.” This brought a shutter and sharp stare from the woman next to her. “Yet. I believe that she has come to understand her daughter and more importantly, to understand that to truly love her daughter, as only a mother can, she must toss aside anything that blemishes that love. She can speak for herself, but I believe that she has had a personal resurrection within herself, about herself, her daughter, and her God.”
Kerry and Kate stared at Eileen. They both understood, coming at it from opposite directions, that Eileen believed that there had been a sea change in Kate, that it was real and not a feigned effort to reconnect with her daughter. With the others still silent, Eileen picked it back up.
“I know how spacey that sounds to you Kerry, and perhaps to you as well Kate, but what matters, Kerry, is that I believe that the Kate sitting here today, who I met less than twenty-four hours ago, is not the Kate that effectively sent Suzanne away that day when she helped send Mary away.”
Kerry needed to think. She asked her Mom to give her a few minutes with Mrs. Nelson, and her Mom went for a walk with her phone, having some thinking to do herself.
Over the next ten minutes, Kerry and Kate spoke. It was hard for both of them until Kerry sat on the sofa next to the not-so-formidable Mrs. Nelson. “You know nothing of me. All you need to know is that I love your daughter to the bottom of my heart. I was nothing before I met her and I’d be nothing if I did not have her. She is so much better than me in so many ways and she is the sweetest, most caring person that I have ever met. I will not allow you to see her unless you tell me how you love her right now, knowing about me, knowing that we are engaged, knowing about her Aunt, knowing that she felt she could no longer look to or rely on you and her father for anything. Knowing all of that, tell me how you love her.”