With my injured arm now in a sling, I hold out the other arm to hug her and she lets me, even though I’m just the help.
She even hugs back.
CHAPTER 84
Two Months Later
AMBER WANTED ME BACK. She insisted.
I made a feeble attempt to say no, but we both knew I didn’t mean it.
She said she really needed me, really missed me. And she swore Lily missed me too, though I won’t be able to confirm that until Lily begins to speak in complete sentences.
So here I am, back at the Harrison house.
Another surprise: Hailey might be the one who’s happiest to have me back. Amber asked her if she’d be willing to swap her big second-floor bedroom suite for the atticspace I’d been living in, and Hailey said yes, even though she admits it’s smaller and (to use Hailey’s own word) suckier. That’s because Hailey knows she owes me, big-time.
Thanks to me, she’s now a local celebrity.
When the story broke—that the woman who drove her to school every day had cracked a cartel mob—Hailey became a superstar.
While I was still in the hospital, reporters took to camping outside the Harrison house every morning. They were crazy to score an interview with anyone. Amber declined but Hailey not only agreed—she began to dress better. She was written up in the school newspaper. The local radio station wanted a sit-down with her. Now kids who never knew she existed are begging Hailey to join them at lunch and asking her to pose for selfies.
Ben, who had accepted money without knowing it was from criminal activity, was never charged. He wanted to go to couples counseling with Amber, but she declined that as well. She told him she needed some time alone.
Frankly, I think it’s more than that.
Ben moved into a nearby sublet and comes to visit Lily and Hailey several times a week. Amber makes it a point to be out when he’s there. I stick around, knowing Ben’s still nervous around babies. Sometimes the two of us take Lily to what’s now known as The Playpark since they took the Taggart sign down.
Speaking of Ray Taggart: He and Alan Metcalf have been lawyering up like crazy as they begin their journeythrough the very complicated legal system. Both will be hit with money-laundering charges, but the government may decide to add conspiracy to defraud, mail and wire fraud, and maybe a little racketeering on the side.
Far as I know, Lily never saidCaagain. But just yesterday I heard her sayEh—the beginning ofElinor! Every so often Amber slips and calls me Carol. At first she was embarrassed, but now we laugh about it. Just as we laugh together at all the magical things Lily is learning to do, day by day: hold her own sippy cup, sit up, crawl, shake her head yes and no. Mostly no.
I sublet my apartment in the city. Suddenly, at my tender age, I have a brand-new home and a brand-new family. Technically I guess I’m still the help, but it’s more than that. Amber and I are friends. She’s like the daughter I never had.
And to think, I owe my new life to Alan Metcalf. I should probably get in touch with him at some point to thank him for all he’s done. Maybe I will as soon as I learn his cell number.
Not his phone. Hisjailcell.
Best of all: Coveleigh Ravenstock put in a good word for me at the FBI. It looks like I’ll be resuming my role as special agent after all. They agreed to cover my back pay and restore all my benefits. And this time around, I’ll have my choice of projects. I’ll go undercover whenever they need a woman to poke around without being noticed. In other words, I’ll be aprofessionalInvisible Woman.
Who could say no to a deal like that?
Of course, I’ll have to clear it all with my advisers: Amber, Hailey, and Lily.
Lily’s approval might take a while. But maybe not.
After all, sheisvery advanced.
