Jarvis reading out the evidence to Hamiltons, texts Asia. I relay the message to the Pierces. We’re all kind of holding our breath.
“No, I’m sorry Elise had to die. But Corbin is my son and I want to see him happy. So I’m glad she’s gone.” Mitsy is looking at me slightly defiantly, like she expects a challenge, but no, I’m glad she’s gone, too. So I just nod. “It’s better for the baby,” she continues, clapping Maeve’s hands together.
Mr.Hamilton just threw a punch at Jarvis! Corbin stopped him. awesome. I relay that text as well and we all laugh nervously.
She’s all “LIES!” and “Where did you get this?!” I hope to hell she thinks I’m just taking notes or I’ll need a bodyguard.
“I told Jarvis to keep Ms. Johnson’s name completely out of this. Because she would need a bodyguard,” says Ed. I can believe it, that woman is evil.
I keep checking my phone, thinking I’m missing texts, but an hour goes by with no more from Asia. Ed had gotten bored with playing on the floor and is thumbing through his phone on the window seat. Mitsy has read half the books in the playroom, but Maeve is alway happy to hear more, especially if they have Spot the Dog.
Finally the door bursts open and Corbin comes in, Asia right behind him. “Good news!” he says, grinning ear to ear. We all exhale, audibly.
“He wouldn’t let me spill the beans,” says Asia.
“The Hamiltons have agreed to drop the suit. We don’t show any of our gathered evidence to the police, they stay away from Maeve.”
“Completely?” I ask.
“No contact. If, after she turns eighteen, Maeve wants to contact them, that’s fine, but nothing until then. And hopefully not then.”
We all rush to hug him at once, congratulating and expressing relief. His parents pull back to let me have my own hug, though. His embrace is close, strong.
“Look!” Mitsy says.
We turn toward her and see that Maeve has begun making her way across the rug, calling “Da da da da” as she goes. Corbin drops down to meet her and she speeds up a little, uncertain though her crawling is. “Da da!” she says when she reaches him. “Dada!”
There’s no mistaking that for her random syllable babbling. My eyes tear up as I watch Corbin scoop his daughter in his arms and kiss her neck. Mitsy is crying openly and even Ed looks a little red-eyed.
Asia comes over to me and touches my arm. “Look,” she says, voice low, “I’m going to scoot, leave you guys to this. Corbin was amazing in there. You’re a lucky girl. Don’t fuck it up.”
“I’ll do my best,” I tell her, hugging her before she goes. “Stop in at the kitchen as you leave, Marta was going to have lunch ready.”
Our lunch is loud and happy. Marta and Connie agree to eat with us, everyone passing the food around laughing and telling stories. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of all of us. I’ve never seen Corbin more happy, he’s smiling from forehead to chin.
That evening, after Maeve has gone to sleep in the Pierce’s room, Corbin and I go out for a walk. The night is perfect as we stroll through the rows of grapes.
“You know what Maeve needs now?” asks Corbin, holding my hand.
“Yeah, a big slobbery dog and a half dozen chickens, we’ve been over this,” I tease.
“Well, yeah. She’ll get those, too. But in a couple of years maybe? She needs a little brother. Or sister. Maybe both.”
I’m not sure I’m breathing, so i just make a “Hmm” noise. Corbin stops and turns toward me.
“I’m serious, Vanessa. I can’t imagine going forward without you. I mean, I’ve only known you this short time and you are already an important part of my life, indispensible.”
“Aw, you’ll find a new nanny,” I say, trying to get to what he’s really saying without jumping to conclusions and looking like an idiot.
“Well, that part is going to be tough, but you know that’s not what I mean. I love you. Maeve loves you. I don’t want you to leave us.”
“Are you asking me to stay here even after school starts?”
“Yes. But more than that. I’m fucking it up, I know, but I’m trying to ask you to marry me.”
I’m speechless.
“No ring, I’m not down on one knee…that didn’t work out so well last time, so let’s do it our way–let’s just do it, just say yes.”
“Corbin, we hardly know one another. I love you, I do, but it’s not even been two months!”
“I know. But it feels like a trial by fire. You’re the one. I’ve known it all along but now I’m certain.”
“I want to say yes. But it feels too soon!”
“Then just say yes to me. And we don’t tell a soul until Christmas. When you see that it’s still the best idea I’ve ever had, we’ll announce it. And we’ll get married here on your spring break, when everything is green and in bloom. And then I’ll show you India.”
I feel my head nodding, like it had its own plan. I just go with it. “Yes. Then, yes.”
We don’t walk much more. Suddenly it seems really necessary to get back to my room. And with Maeve sleeping in the Pierce’s room in another wing, we don’t even have to worry about being quiet.
Epilogue
“Daddy! The goats are in the kitchen!” Maeve is standing in the doorway of my office, her hair a wild mass of black curls, dirt smudged on her face.
“Where’s your mom?” I ask, hoping I don’t have to go wrangle the goats, but knowing it’s not fair to expect my very pregnant wife to do it.
“She’s napping. Marta caught Spotty, but Brownie is too fast.”
I sigh and get up. The goats were a bad idea. I see that now. But they were so cute and Maeve was so delighted by them. Vanessa’s Grandma told me I was an idiot, in her charmingly blunt way. “Goats are nothing but devilment” was what she said and she was right. They spend their entire day trying to figure out how to get out of the pen that poor Rick repairs after each escape.
A bad idea.
Vanessa’s in her eighth month of pregnancy now. Soon we’ll have an infant as well as a three year old. We timed it so that the baby would be born near the start of summer break, but it means it’s already really hot when Vanessa’s really big. Beautiful, I swear, but…big. She says the kids in her class keep teasing her, saying she’s going to give birth to a full grown man. Connie swears the doctor is wrong and there’s a surprise twin in there. Vanessa tells her to bite her tongue.
The nanny problem sorted itself out naturally enough. After I’d sent away yet another angry control freak, Vanessa said, “What about Marta?”
And, duh. Of course. Marta already knew Maeve’s routine, knew how we liked her treated. She didn’t mind giving up the cooking job at all when I told her the salary. Marta’s a good cook, but so are a lot of people. Only a select few are qualified to love my kid. Kids.
It was still a tough transition. Maeve wanted Vanessa. But kids are adaptable, like everyone keeps telling me, and now she seems happy enough.
As I near the kitchen, I can hear Brownie bleating. “Hey Maeve, how did Brownie get into the kitchen?”
“I letted him. Now you can catch him easy.”
Sound logic, I suppose, from her point of view. When I open the door, I’m greeted with utter chaos, as I expected. The little goat has happily bounded from floor to chair to table to counter to top of counter, knocking everything to the ground as he goes. There are round goat berries everywhere.
“Bleeehhh!” Brownie greets us from on top of the refrigerator.
“He’s on da FWIDGE!”
I text Rick for back up. “Hey, goaty goaty goat. Hey Brownie, here boy.” I pick up an apple from a bowl and show it to him. “Want this? C’mere!”
He leaps down on to the counter, but ignores the apple and continues to bound around the kitchen surfaces, strewing everything in his path, bleating happily.
Maeve is screaming with delight, which of course just riles the goat. Chaos.
I make a lunge for Brownie as h
e tries to careen past and manage to grab him around the middle. I lift him up, upside down. He’s struggling to get his feet on the ground, I’m struggling to right him, but hold on. Maeve is trying to pat him, saying “Hey yittle guy, hey yittle guy!”
I look up and Vanessa is in the doorway, hands on her big belly. She just shakes her head. “I guess I should snap a picture for the prep school alumni magazine.”
“Hi. Brownie got into the kitchen.”