“I didn’t know they had a will.” Maybe I had known that. It seemed like I’d heard Neil badgering them both about it, at one point. “Just us? Not Valerie Stern, or Michael’s parents?”
“Just Neil Elwood and his wife, Sophie Scaife.”
In the bathroom, the shower started.
“Okay. You have my cell number, right?” I asked, chewing my lip and casting nervous glances toward the bathroom as though I were smuggling drugs through an airport. The lawyer repeated the number back to me, and I said, “I need you to please call that number about any of this. Give it to the social worker, too. I’ll deal with all of this, because Neil is…”
“I understand,” the lawyer assured me.
We hung up, and I checked the time. He’d said the social worker would be contacting us within the hour.
I had to talk to Neil, now.
I grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of panties as I walked through the closet and pulled them on when I stepped through the bathroom door. Steam fogged the edges of the glass, but I could still see Neil standing under the spray, his forehead against the wall. When I said his name, he raised his head and cleared his throat, donning the mantle of Okay-Neil in an instant.
“Now is…not a good time, Sophie. I want to be alone.”
“I know. And, under normal circumstances, I promise, I would leave you alone, right now.” I took a breath. “The lawyer called, and…a social worker will be coming by this morning. With Olivia.”
Neil tipped his head back, looking to the ceiling, but he said nothing.
“We were named in the will,” I went on. “Just us. I guess we’re her guardians, now?”
He cleared his throat. “Right. Well, that makes it much simpler, doesn’t it? No fight.”
“The person is going to call me within the hour. I don’t know if she’ll bring the baby stuff—”
“We’ll figure all of that out,” Neil interrupted. “If you’ll excuse me?”
“Yeah, sure.” I backed out of the room and closed the door behind me. I waited a beat. Even over the sound of the running water, I heard his sobs.
I leaned my forehead against the door. I hated this. We’d been on this merry-go-round before. Shut down, shut out. It was how he dealt with everything. Then, I had to somehow claw my way back in.
How did I do that, when this pain was so immense and so private?
I heard my phone’s generic ringtone from the other room, and I ran to it, my hands shaking. Something in me panicked, like Olivia would be taken from us if we missed that first phone call.
“Hello?” I gasped.
“Ms. Scaife?” the voice on the other end asked.
“Yeah?”
“This is Amanda Thomas.I’m a social worker for King’s county. I’m calling regarding the placement of Olivia Van der Graf.”
“Right, we’re, um… My husband and I—” Stop. Calm down. Get your shit together. “Obviously, this is a very difficult time for my husband. Olivia is his granddaughter.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” the woman cut in. “Which is why I’d like to make sure this goes as smoothly as possible for everyone. I understand that the child is at home at present?”
“Yes. With the au pair.” I bit my thumbnail. Should we have gone over and picked her up last night, after all? What were we thinking? “Can she just bring her?”
“If you think that’s a good idea, I don’t see why not. But I do need to see you, to have you sign some paperwork. Would this afternoon be all right?”
Nothing is all right! I wanted to scream. But I didn’t. I calmly set up a time to meet the woman. I’d just hung up when Neil emerged from the walk-in, dressed casually in a baby blue sweater and a pair of comfortable-looking, faded jeans.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” he asked, not confrontational but confused.
I looked down at my t-shirt and panties. “I just haven’t had the chance.”