The server came to take their order then, and Ella scanned the menu and ordered a selection of food for them to share before turning her attention back to her aunt. She could see that Kate was fascinated with the box, still turning it over in her hands and not able to take her eyes from it. Ella usually ordered for the two of them when they went out, so she knew Kate wouldn’t mind her taking the lead.
‘Tell me everything, Ella. I want to know exactly what happened today. Don’t leave anything out.’
She leaned closer to her aunt, reaching to trace her fingertips over the photo. Something about the woman and the girl looking back kept drawing her eye, kept making her want to study the picture all the more to see if there was something she was supposed to recognise, some clue that would tell her more.
‘I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived for the meeting today, but I wasn’t the only one there. There were other women, most of them similar in age to me, and we were all ushered into an office.’
‘And they were all there on behalf of their grandmothers? Just like you?’
Ella nodded. ‘We were all there for the same reason. There was a lawyer, the one who sent the letter to Grandma’s estate, and he told us that he’d represented a woman named Hope, many years ago. She apparently ran a home for unmarried mothers and their babies, and these little boxes were found there recently, by her niece. She explained that she was initially of two minds about what to do with them, because the boxes had been hidden for so long, but she felt uncomfortable discovering them and not trying to find the women they were intended for.’
‘Wait.’ Kate took a large sip of wine, her hand held in the air to pause the conversation. ‘You’re telling me that your grandma, mymother, was born in this home? That I wasn’t biologically related to my grandparents? And that this box was left for my mother when she was adopted? That it’s been hidden all this time?’
Ella nodded again. ‘It certainly appears that way. They were hidden beneath floorboards in a place called Hope’s House, discovered only because the home was to be demolished. It’s a miracle they were found at all.’
Kate’s jaw fell open and Ella grimaced. ‘I take it you didn’t know she was adopted.’
‘Didn’t know!’ Kate spluttered. ‘Ella, this is absurd. The fact that we’ve only just found this out, that these things were left behind, I don’t know what to say. You think it’s all true? That it’s not some kind of, I don’t know, and please don’t tell me I sound like your mother, but it couldn’t be fabricated, could it? This couldn’t be part of some elaborate scam to draw us in? These things happen a lot these days, you know.’
Ella indicated to the server that they needed more wine, smiling as they nodded in reply. ‘Honestly, I asked myself the very same question, but I am inclined to believe it. All they asked of me was to show identification and to sign for the box. The niece, Mia, she seemed very genuine. All she wanted was to give these little boxes to their rightful owners, and the lawyer’s office was very impressive. In fact, I’ve had dealings with a lawyer there before, through the gallery, so I can’t see how this could be anything other than legitimate.’
She watched as Kate picked the box up again and turned it over in her hands, as if she expected to find something else hidden, perhaps a secret compartment. She’d done the same thing herself on her way to the restaurant, almost convinced there was more to it than just the two items she’d found inside. ‘So this little box has been hidden for years? Decades even? At this house? Just waiting for someone to discover it?’
‘Hope’s House,’ Ella said. ‘And yes, it sounds as if this Hope asked some of the mothers to leave behind something for their child that could be given to them one day, and she attached these little name tags to each box. What her niece didn’t know was whether other boxes had been given out over the years as women came searching for answers. Whether perhaps these particular boxes were kept hidden for some reason, or if it was simply a case of these women not knowing they were adopted. Perhaps this Hope was intending to give them out, but died before she had the chance? I suppose we’ll never know.’
‘You think this Hope asked them to do this, to put these little boxes together, so the adopted children could find their biological families one day?’
Ella shrugged. ‘Perhaps. Or maybe it was just so that they had something that belonged to their mothers. Maybe they weren’t ever supposed to find their birth mothers, that it was more of a keepsake to send to them? All I know is that this woman, Hope, clearly put a lot of thought into what she did. Each box had a handwritten name tag, and the way it was knotted together with string, I don’t know, there just seemed to be so much care taken with each one. It was quite something to see them all.’
‘How many were there?’
‘Seven,’ Ella said. ‘But there were only six women there. They hadn’t been able to make contact with the family of the seventh, or if they had, she hadn’t turned up.’
Their food began to arrive then, and Ella gently tucked the photo back inside the box, taking care to fold the music back down to its intended size, before putting it into her handbag. Kate’s hand closed over hers as she zipped it up, their eyes meeting for a long moment.
‘Your grandma would have loved this, Ella. She would have taken to these little clues with gusto and not stopped until she’d found out what they meant. I can almost see the glint in her eye.’
Ella smiled as she thought of her grandma—it had only been months since she’d died, and it hadn’t been easy on any of them. But in the end, her passing had been easier than seeing her suffer. Her cancer had been so aggressive that she’d only had months to live after her diagnosis, taking her last breath with Ella’s mother at her bedside.
‘So you think we should try to figure out what they mean? You think we should do this for her?’ Ella asked.
Kate nodded. ‘I do. And I also think that we should keep this between us for now.’
‘In other words, you don’t want my mother to dampen our spirits and put an end to our investigation?’
‘Ella, that’sexactlywhat I think. You know me all too well.’
They both laughed, heads dipped together.And you know my mother too well. Ella held up her drink, feeling guilty for enjoying Kate’s company so much more than she did her mum’s these days. Kate had almost become more friend than aunt. ‘To finding out who my great-grandparents were.’
‘Cheers to that,’ Kate said, as they clinked their glasses together before turning their attention to the food in front of them.
Ella lifted her fork to try the monkfish, but she hesitated when Kate suddenly set her own fork down and stared at her.
‘What if this niece of Hope’s knows more than she’s let on? Maybe she has records that we could ask her to show us. Perhaps she has more clues?’
Ella thought for a moment. Mia, the niece she’d met earlier in the day, had seemed very genuine in her intentions, and if anyone could help them to piece the clues together, perhaps it was her. But wouldn’t she have said if there was more to tell?
‘You’re right. I’ll contact the lawyer in the morning and see if they’ll put me in touch with her. It’s certainly worth a shot.’
