Chapter 53 Vermont
Ivy POV
A day or two turned into three. Not because I wasn't ready. Because Lucas needed the plan right. And the plan kept needing one more thing. One more sweep of the property. One more confirmation of the route. One more check on whether Voss's people were watching the Vermont area.
I understood the logic. I didn't like the waiting. Monday I went to class. Behavioral psychology. I sat in my usual seat and took notes. Thought about Vermont the entire time. Not anxious. Just thinking.
Miriam had been there for two years. She wasn't going anywhere. She had already waited twenty six years. Three more days wasn't going to change anything. But it felt close now in a way it hadn't before.
Like a door that had been locked for a very long time was about to open. I wanted to know what was on the other side. Maya was outside after the seminar. She had coffee. The good kind. One for each of us.
"You look distracted," she said.
"I have a lot on my mind," I said.
"Anything you want to talk about?" she said.
"Not yet."
She nodded.
No push. Just accepted it and walked beside me. That was the thing about Maya. She knew when to ask and when to just be there. I watched her from the corner of my eye as we walked.
The ease in the way she moved. The way she scanned the street without making it obvious. The way she stayed on my left side. Between me and the road. Small things.
Things I had been noticing more and more. Things I didn't fully understand yet. I kept them in mind.
Said nothing.
Tuesday, Lucas came upstairs at eight with the plan. He spread it out on my kitchen table.
Route to Vermont. Two cars. Entry to the property. How we approached the house. What happened if Miriam didn't answer.
"What if she won't talk to me?" I said.
"She will," Lucas said.
"How do you know?"
"Because she's been waiting for you," he said. "She sent the texts. She left the box. She moved closer when you came to New York."
He looked at me.
"She wants this conversation more than you do."
I thought about that. He was probably right.
"Caden?" I said.
"Same arrangement as the house," Lucas said. "Nearby. Not at the door."
"He should be at the door," I said.
Lucas looked at me.
"She doesn't know him," I said.
"She might not open up if he's there."
I paused.
"I go in first. Just me and you. He comes in after."
Lucas considered that.
"I'll tell him," he said.
"I'll tell him," I said.
I knocked on Caden's door at nine. He opened it. I told him the plan. He listened without interrupting. When I finished he said, "You go in first."
"Yes," I said. "She reached out to me. Not to you. I don't want her to feel cornered before she's even started talking."
He looked at me for a moment.
"Okay," he said.
"Okay?" I said. I had expected more resistance.
"You know what this conversation needs," he said. "I trust that."
That landed somewhere. I didn't say anything about it. I just nodded.
"We leave at seven tomorrow," I said.
"I'll be ready."
I turned to go.
"Ivy," he said.
I stopped.
"Are you scared?" he said.
I thought about it honestly.
"No, I've been scared of finding out for a long time." I looked at him. "I'm not anymore."
He held my gaze.
"Good," he said quietly.
Wednesday morning, I woke at five again.
Same as the house day. My body doing the same thing. Like it had already decided the day needed full attention from the start.
I lay there for a moment. Thought about my mother. She had carried it her whole life. Known what she was. Hidden it and protected me from it. Died before she could explain any of it. Today I was going to find out what she couldn't tell me.
I got up.
The drive to Vermont was two hours. Lucas drove. Caden sat in the front. I was in the back. The city fell away after the first thirty minutes. Buildings became highways. The highway became trees. That steady shift you get leaving New York. Like the world opening up again.
I watched it pass. Thought about the key in my bag. The photograph of the woman at the edge of a forest. The line she left behind.
‘When you know what you are, come find me.
I was coming.
I didn't fully know what I was yet. But I was closer than I had ever been. And she had said come find me anyway. Maybe knowing what you were wasn't something that happened all at once.
Maybe it happened in steps. Maybe this was one of them. The town was small.
The kind of small that felt deliberate. Like people lived there because it asked nothing of them. Lucas turned off the main road onto a smaller one.
Trees on both sides. A house at the end.
Small. White. A garden that was still being cared for. Neat edges, late season flowers holding on. Someone who had made it a home. Lucas stopped the car and looked back at me.
"Ready?" he said.
I looked at the house. Thought about the woman in the photograph. Dark eyes. That stillness. Looking straight at the camera like she was looking at whoever would one day hold it. Looking at me.
"Yes," I said.
I got out of the car. Walked up the path.
Stopped at the door and knocked. A long moment passed then the door opened.
The woman from the photograph stood there.
Older than the picture. But the same dark eyes. The same stillness. She looked at me for a long moment. Then she said;
"You look exactly like her."
Her voice was quiet. A little rough. Like someone who didn't use it often.
"You knew my mother," I said.
"Yes," she said. "I did." She stepped back from the door. "Come in, Ivy. I've been waiting a very long time.”