“Gertie told me. She told me about the rituals. About what goes on. How it all works. She told me about you…”
“Gertie…” Erica gaped at him. “Gertie, as in Clay’s
He nodded dumbly. “I’m so sorry, Erica. I’m so sorry about what’s happened to you, what they’ve done to you.”
He went to put his arms around her, but she pushed him away, shaking her head. “No… we can’t do this. I can’t torture myself anymore. Or you. I just want it to stop. I need it all to just… stop.”
“I know,” he agreed. “I thought I was helping those girls I sent to Magdalene House. I didn’t know they were being coerced into signing adoption papers. I didn’t know about Father Patrick, about what he’d done, what he was doing, the way he lied and manipulated…”
“We know now,” Erica said. “That’s all that matters. Now the question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“I’m going to report him to the Bishop,” he said, and Erica heard the steel in his voice, despite the tears. “I just need enough evidence…”
Erica met his eyes and a slow smile spread across her face. “I think I can help you with that.”
Chapter Nine
Leah woke up the morning of her wedding to the sound of rain on the warehouse roof. She and Erica had slept together in Erica’s little twin bed, just like they used to, and Rob had spent the night in a hotel room, because the entire place was filled with squealing, screaming, giggling girls, and he fell back on the excuse that it was “bad luck to see the bride before the wedding” to hightail it the hell out of there.
Solie, who still had a terrible cough, wrangled them all, feeding them popcorn and Cokes and homemade cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, and Leah’s mother brought Ada with her, the housekeeper who had practically raised Leah while Patty Wendt worked in Donald Highbrow’s law office all day. Ada shadowed Solie, helping where she could, but she kept bursting into tears and hugging Leah and saying, “My baby! My sweet baby girl!” so often the shoulders of Leah’s sweater was soaked by the end of the night.
Leah’s mother stayed over, sleeping up in the loft, and Solie and Ada had bunked on the pull-out sofa, and the rest of the girls were sleeping on Erica’s floor in sleeping bags. They had stayed up talking and giggling and playing records and making inappropriate jokes until the wee hours. She couldn’t remember when she’d fallen asleep, the excitement in her belly buzzing, but she did remember looking over at Erica asleep, thinking how much she loved her, had always loved her that way, like a sister. Finding out they were twins had been shocking at first, but now it felt so natural. Of course they were sisters. Had they ever been anything else?
Who else but her sister would have gone out of her way to track down Leah’s roommates from Magdalene House, the girls Leah had spent those long, anxious months with, four girls who really knew how Leah felt losing Grace? They were all here snoring on the bedroom floor, thanks to her best friend-her sister, her twin.
Beside her, Erica stretched and yawned. “I can’t believe it’s raining on your wedding day. I ordered sunshine, damn it.”
“I can’t believe you’re my sister,” Leah whispered, snuggling up and spooning her. Erica hugged Leah’s arm over her middle, a sweet, familiar gesture, one that was so comfortable, Leah wondered if they had slept this way in the womb. “My
“I know.” Erica smiled, eyes still closed. She had taken the news far better than Leah thought she would, accepting the fact they were fraternal twins without a beat. Her only question had been, “Do I have to call Patty ‘Mom’?”
Leah hadn’t told her mother yet that they knew, that Rob had revealed her secret.
“I can’t believe you’re marrying the guy I always thought of as my dad.”
Leah giggled. “I can’t believe I’m marrying the guy I always thought of as your dad either.”
She really couldn’t believe it. Today was her wedding day.
The sound of a baby crying startled her before she remembered that Marty’s baby was sleeping next to his mother, sweet little Gregory Adam Walker, a name that Leah didn’t have much trouble with, since she had it on a postcard tucked into the mirror over her dresser. She was having a much harder time with the names of her former Magdalene House roommates however. Marty was Maureen, which wasn’t too much of a stretch, but Lizzie was really Carolyn and Jean was Norma and she never remembered to call Frannie Marguerite. All of them kept calling Leah by her fake Magdalene House name too, and Erica laughed hearing her called “Lily” all the time. They’d finally just given up and stuck to the names they knew each other by.
Leah looked over at Marty nursing her baby. She was still half asleep, on her side, the baby pulled to her, suckling happily, instantly quieted. Leah realized with a sick feeling in her middle that even if baby Grace came home today, she wouldn’t be able to nurse her. They had bound her breasts and given her an injection to dry up her milk.
“Are you ready to be Mrs. Robert Nolan,” Erica whispered, making Leah smile at the words.
“More than ready.”
She couldn’t believe how fast it had all come together. The lawyer had told them to get married as soon as possible, and she had cried in Rob’s arms at the loss of a big church wedding. She was willing to make the sacrifice for Grace’s sake, of course, but it still broke her heart to give up her adolescent dream of the white dress and the flowers and the bridal dance.
Rob had held her and whispered, “Okay, if it’s a big wedding you want, it’s a big wedding you’ll have.”
And then he had moved heaven and earth to make it happen. He and Erica had put their heads together, taken Leah’s list of wedding wishes, and had taken charge of everything. Leah picked out the dress, the invitations, the flowers, her bridesmaids dresses. She picked the cake, the menu and their reception venue. But she had no idea how they had managed to make any of that possible on such short notice.
Erica yawned and stretched again, sitting up and slapping the bed, announcing, “Let’s get this show on the road!”
All the girls groaned, pulling various pillows or blankets over their heads after their late night, but Erica wasn’t having it.
“C’mon, troops! Ten-hut!” Erica hopped over Leah, landing on the floor in bare feet, grabbing blankets and sleeping bags, rolling girls out of their comfy hideaways.
“Okay, Sergeant, you rally the troops while I go take a shower.” Leah giggled, threading her way through limbs and torsos, waving to her former roommates, all of them protesting. But they were smiling.
Leah was smiling too. She couldn’t help it. She smiled all the way through her shower, shampooing her hair twice, shaving her legs-and between them too-wondering if she would ever have a better day than this one in her whole life. The day Grace was born, of course.
Even the thought of Grace couldn’t keep Leah from smiling as she came out of the bathroom to find the weather had cooperated with Erica’s orders, and the sun had appeared, making a rainbow in the sky that the girls were standing in the living room exclaiming over as they looked at it through the skylights.
“It’s the best luck in the world for a bride to have a rainbow on her wedding day.” Leah’s mother smiled over a cup of coffee.
Leah smiled back, joining the gaggle of girls in goggling at the refracted light show, thinking her mother was right. Today, she was the luckiest girl in the world.
“I don’t think there have been this many white people on Linwood street since the riots,” Erica whispered, peeking out the door.
“Erica!” Leah’s mother gasped, but she was laughing, pulling her back into the room.
“Erica, don’t start,” Leah called from where she sat, surrounded by her bridesmaids, thanks to her best friend and sister, waiting anxiously for it to be time to walk down the aisle. They were all so beautiful in their brown satin
