Victor called me before I could call him.

“I understand you’re upset,” he said. “We can meet and settle this privately.”

“Your company ordered a locksmith to Amara’s apartment while she was in the hospital.”

“The lease was ending.”

“You don’t own that building.”

“Our property division manages it.”

I had not known Victor’s company had a contract there. Ms. Reed was checking the claim.

“Why were you involved with Amara at all?” I asked.

“She has a habit of making demands.”

“She’s the mother of my children.”

He went quiet for a beat.

“Those claims should be verified.”

“They will be. Until then, stay away from her and the girls.”

“I’ve known you for years, Adrian.”

“Then you know I mean it.”

I ended the call and gave Ms. Reed an account of everything he said.

At the hospital, Amara had already heard from her apartment manager. Victor’s company handled maintenance at several buildings, but it had no authority to end her lease. The notice Celeste brought was not issued by the landlord.

Amara held the copy in her hands.

“I was so frightened when Nora told me about it,” she said. “I couldn’t leave the hospital. I thought they’d put our things on the street.”

“They didn’t,” I said.

“Nora believed they would. She carried Mia all the way to your wedding.”

I had not stopped thinking about the distance from the bus stop to the hotel. She had walked it in one shoe.

Ms. Reed asked Amara whether she wanted to report the false notice and the attempted lock change. She did. She also asked that the building send every future notice directly to her lawyer while she recovered.

I took Nora to a nearby store that afternoon. She chose sturdy shoes and a sweater for Mia. When we reached the register, she tried to put the sweater back.

“It costs too much,” she whispered.

“I can pay for it.”

“Mom says we should check prices.”

“She’s right. We should. And today we can buy what Mia needs.”

Nora looked at the price again, then nodded.

I did not want gifts to become the only language I spoke to my daughters. We went to the park afterward. I pushed Mia in a swing while Nora ran ahead to the climbing frame. She called for me to watch when she reached the top.

“I’m watching!”

She waved with both hands. For a moment, she looked like any child enjoying an afternoon. Then a white car passed slowly along the road, and she climbed down at once.

“Was that her?”

“No,” I said after seeing the driver. “Celeste isn’t here.”

Nora came to stand beside me.

“I thought she’d take us away.”

I crouched.

“She can’t decide where you and Mia live.”

“Mom couldn’t stop her at the apartment.”

“Mom was ill. A lawyer is helping her now, and Tasha and I are here too.”

Nora looked at the swing where Mia was kicking her legs.

“Are you staying even if the test says something strange?”

I could hear how carefully she had chosen the question.

“I’m going to stay involved in your life. The test won’t change what I’ve promised today.”

Her face eased. She reached for the swing next to Mia’s.

The test results came several days later. Nora and Mia were both my daughters. I read the report alone before taking it to Amara. It confirmed what I had known since Nora looked at me from the wedding aisle.

Amara let out a long breath.

“Now the papers can catch up with them,” she said.

We began arranging legal recognition and support through our lawyers. I asked what bills had piled up while she was ill. She gave Ms. Reed the information so Amara could decide what help to accept and how it would be documented.

I did not want her to feel that I had discovered the children and taken control of her life.

The investigation into the intercepted messages moved forward too. Paul found old office records showing several letters from Amara had been delivered to my house. A former housekeeper remembered Celeste taking one from the hall table while she was there for a fundraiser.

“She said she’d put it in your study,” the housekeeper told Ms. Reed. “I never checked.”

The email Amara received after Chicago had come from an account linked to my home computer. Celeste had used that computer during a visit. Investigators would determine exactly what happened; the records gave them somewhere to start.

That evening, I went to the house I had shared with Celeste. She was waiting in the living room with two suitcases.

“I’m leaving,” she said.

“That’s best.”

She looked at me as if I had struck her.

“You haven’t asked why I did any of it.”

“I’m asking now.”

Her eyes filled.

“Because every time Amara appeared, you looked at her like I had disappeared.”