"Good."
She turned back to the mirror and continued to brush her hair.
"Actually, I've very upset. No one's called me today, Olivia."
"Your phone was disconnected, Belinda, remember?"
"Oh. Was it? Well, can you connect it again? I'm expecting calls."
I stared at her and she brushed her hair and then started to put on her lipstick far too thickly.
"This is ridiculous," I said. "It's coming to an end right now."
I marched out of her room and went to my bedroom to call Nelson.
"I have something I want you to do," I said when he was called to the phone.
"What?"
"Come to my office tomorrow at eleven."
"I have appointments too, Olivia. I can't just drop clients like that," he pleaded.
"All right," I said softening. "When can you come?"
"I'm free between two and three."
"Good," I said.
I hung up and thought for a moment. I wasn't breaking my promise to Daddy, I concluded. I was keeping it. My conscience was clear. As I left the room, I paused at the nursery. Thelma had Haille in her arms and was rocking her to sleep.
"She's a beautiful child, Mrs. Logan," she said.
"I know."
"Belinda will be all right," she added. "I'm sure. Once she realizes what a wonderful little girl she has, she'll be fine."
"We'll see," I said and went downstairs to tell Samuel what I thought had to be done. He was upset and tried to talk me out of it, but I was confident.
The next day Nelson arrived at my office at two-thirty. Samuel was not yet back from a lunch meeting so Nelson and I were alone. He came in, closed the door and sat on the sofa across from my desk.
"Is this the way it will be forever now, Olivia? You summon me and I come?" he asked, his eyes glaring like two orbs of glass with candles behind them.
"I called you to meet with me because I need your help now, Nelson," I said and the disgusted smirk left his face to be replaced with an expression of deep concern.
"I see. What is it?"
"It's Belinda," I said. "She's not getting much better. We both underestimated the traumatic experience she has undergone," I continued, rising from my chair to come around the desk and lean against it. He followed me with his eyes.
"I don't understand," he said.
"You remember I told you she was having emotional problems after giving birth?"
"Yes, but I know that not to be uncommon . . ."
"I don't need a lecture about maternal problems. This is a more serious mental illness, Nelson. She's become . . . a burden on top of everything else."
"I warned you, Olivia. I told you keeping the baby was . . ."