And that was that. As easily as Franny had slipped into her life, she slipped right out. She didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to give her up. Even though she never really forgot to whom she belonged, she couldn’t help but love the quiet baby from the basket who grew into a ­little girl that experienced life more intensely than anyone she had ever met. She loved her even more because of what she had done for Matilda, and she knew that part of Franny belonged to her, as well.

It was hard driving to Leah’s. So much time had passed, and she felt frozen and stiff inside. But when the door opened and she saw Leah’s face and they touched each other, everything that had grown hard and rough suddenly softened. Leah took her up to the bedroom, which was painted a beautiful green and dotted with fairies.

“This will be her room.” Leah looked older, and instead of the innocence Therese remembered, her beauty felt chiseled. They sat together holding hands and sometimes crying like they had so often before.

“I’m different now,” Leah said.

Therese nodded as she sat in the living room, stirring her tea and watching the sugar collect at the bottom. She remembered how dark this room had been the last time she was there, but now it felt filled with light.

Leah looked out the window before she spoke again. “Do you think she will ever forgive me?”

Therese put her hands in her lap and looked down. “It won’t matter.”

Leah was still looking out the window, but when she turned back to Therese, her eyes were closed.

“She will love you too much to care.”

They talked about how to reveal their secret, and it was Therese who finally hatched the plan to just, simply, disappear. She wanted to vanish—maybe she had always wanted to vanish. Secretly, she wondered if she envied the choice of the father she never knew, but she told herself it was mostly because she could not imagine saying goodbye. Leah did not argue. Perhaps she thought it was best, as well.

Even though it was hard leaving Franny behind, things had all gone according to plan. She and Matilda settled into the townhouse and slipped into the routine of their lives. She was sure that no one watching from the outside would ever be able to tell that what she was really doing was waiting, for the knock or the phone call. She planned and plotted, watching the scene play out like a movie in her head.