"No later than noon tomorrow," Mr. Madison said, as if he was talking about a gunfight.
"Understood," I said.
Jackie Lee opened her purse and took out a handkerchief,
"I feel so guilty. I was the one who put her here," she said, wiping her eves. "I told her she would be safe, be better off, be helped!"
I couldn't speak. Willow. What was I going to say? That Grace had been helped? That she was better off? In many ways she was. I had confidence that she would be able to return to some sort of a normal life, but my own sense of guilt was so overwhelming. I couldn't utter a sound.
"You will note." the attorney said firmly, nodding toward the papers on my desk. "that Mrs. Montgomery will expect a total refund of all the monies she has spent here."
"Yes." I said, glancing at the documents. "Of course."
"And as soon as she can leave., I want her sent home," Jackie Lee said.
She stood up.
"I want to see my daughter now." she demanded.
"Yes." I said. "I'll see to it immediately." I fumbled for the phone and called Edith.
"Please ask Nurse Cohen to return to my office, or if she's not available. Mrs. Litton," I said.
Nurse Cohen showed up so quickly. I thought she might have been standing just outside my door.
"Nurse Cohen will take you to Grace, Mrs. Montgomery, She should be in arts and crafts, should she not. Nurse Cohen?"
"She should be, but she's not. She's in her room." she replied, her eyes signaling some concern. She turned to Jackie Lee. "I'll take you there."
"Thank you." I said.
As soon as they all left. I felt as if the air had gone out of the room with them. I sat stunned and stared at the closed door. If I didn't know what to do before, I certainly didn't know what I would do now.
I looked over the papers Jackie Lee's attorney had prepared. They detailed everything we had discussed only they also added a financial penalty should I or anyone working at my clinic publicize what had happened to Grace.
-While Jackie Lee and her attorney visited with Grace, I sat in my office and stared out my window. Finally. I saw the two of them emerge from the clinic and go to their waiting limousine. After they were driven away. I went to see Grace.
She was sitting in her room, staring out of her window, and turned the moment I entered,
"Grace." I said, shaking my head.
"Don't be alloy at me. Claude. I knew you were struggling with a solution. and I was afraid of what you might come to tell me. I made it very clear to my mother: I am having the child. but I had to agree that I would not take him or her back to Palm Beach with me. Otherwise, she vowed she would sue you and the clinic and make a big issue of it all. She would because she believes at that point it would make no difference. My bringing home the child will ruin her, as well as me, she claimed. I have no doubt she was serious about that. Claude. I'm sorry. In my
desperation, I have only made things worse."
"No. no." I said. "Don't think that. Don't ever think that." "What will we do?"
"There has to be a way for us...."
"Oh. Claude, you of all people should not live in any fantasy. Even after a significant period of time, if we should somehow be together with the child, people will know. You would be ruined. The clinic would be seriously damaged. I couldn't live happily with that sort of guilt."
I nodded and smiled at her. How wonderful she was. Willow. How wise and strong when she had to be strong for us. It was never as clear to me as it was then that your mother would find her way in this world, that she didn't need to be in any sort of institutional environment. In a strange and beautiful way, our love, her pregnancy had brought her up from the depths of the darkness that had brought her here.
I knelt at her feet and put my head gently against her stomach. I could feel you kicking inside, Willow. and I lifted my tear-filled eves and looked at Grace,
"The baby knows its father." she said softly.
I made Grace a promise. then. I told her that somehow, someway our baby would be with me. Again. I had no idea how I would accomplish this. Willow, but in your mother's presence, with her smile branded in my brain. I knew in my heart that I would find the way,