Page 43 of Sublimate
I wanted dinner to be over, but not because it was uncomfortable or weird. I really, really wanted to know what his mom had found out about my paperwork. Yeah, I’d been hungry and the food had been great, but I was anxious to move into her study to see what she’d turned up.
Nolan stood when his mom did so I also jumped to my feet. Then we all started to walk out of the room, leaving the dishes right there on the table for the woman who had also served the food. It didn’t feel right. Brock Whitaker went in the opposite direction and disappeared without saying goodbye or good night or anything.
Madeline led us to what I guessed was the study, but before we got to the paperwork part, she wanted to argue about the invoice she had sent. Nolan wasn’t having any of that. “Let’s examine the work product first,” he told her.
And she frowned but she did give me a folder, and when I opened it…
“Certificate of Live Birth?” I breathed. There it was: Vivienne Claire O’Keeffe, and the date that my mom had always said was my birthday. She’d been right! It was blank under the place for my father, not “Ron” or anything.
“You were a tiny baby,” Nolan said, looking over my shoulder.
“She’s quite small now,” his mom pointed out, and offered ideas about why that was.
“Thank you so much!” I interrupted her. “This makes such a difference for me! How did you do it?”
She only stared. “It was simply a matter of persistence and, of course, one neededun soupçonof intelligence.”
I understood that she was saying I was a dumb quitter but I still didn’t care, because I had this piece of paper. “Thank you,” I repeated.
“What else is there?” he asked. And Madeline had my social security card, too! All of a sudden, everything had changed for me.
She shot out a few more zingers and then they started to debate her bill. I did try to pay attention so I could add that cost onto my list of what I would need to pay Nolan, but I was also entranced by the documents that I now held. I could get a driver’s license. I could get a normal job. I could go back to school and graduate! Maybe.
“I can do almost anything,” I announced, and they both looked over. He smiled but his mother did not.
“In the course of our investigation, we did discover some information about your family,” she said. “You have one sister, Patchouli Agrimony O’Keeffe?” She made a noise that sounded like a cat coughing something up. “Pardon me. That name…”
“What about my sister?” I asked.
“Were you aware of her incarceration? It appears that she was dabbling in the use and sale of other people’s prescriptions, along with additional offenses. That was just the latest set of charges.”
I hadn’t been aware but I wasn’t surprised, either. “Did you find out anything about my mom?”
She opened yet another file. “Yes. What an interesting rap sheet she has. How many times was she arrested for solicitation?”
“I don’t have any idea. A lot?” I guessed, but Nolan was furious.
“Why would you bring that up? Why would you have her rap sheet printed out?” he asked his mother. “Is your purpose to humiliate Vivi or to humiliate me?”
“I thought it was relevant information about the woman you’re seeing.”
“It’s not,” he told her. “I’m already aware of this.” He put his arm around me, his hand on my hip, and he pulled me slightly behind his body.
“Nolan,calme-toi,” she said, shaking her head at us.
“We’re leaving. Let Dad know I said goodbye.” We were already walking and he had called those words over his shoulder.
“You’re not going to stay the night? What about my invoice?”
“The check is in the mail,” he told his mother and we kept moving, right out through the front door.
“Thanks for standing up for me,” I said once we were in the driveway. “It’s too bad that our bags are inside. Also, we don’t have a car.”
“Damn it. It was a good exit line, right?”
I nodded. “I can go back and knock. I actually have no shame.”
But at that point, the door opened again and his dad walked out. “You left these,” he said, and handed over the matching luggage.
