Then shock transformed that lean, dark face. His grip tightened in a spasm on the door. “Maddie?” he whispered.
“Yes.” That sounded inadequate. “It’s me.”
“What...?” He closed his eyes and gave his head a bewildered shake. “My God. Come in.” Standing back, he held the door wide-open. “Maddie.” That same note infused his voice. “Captain,” he said to Colin.
Colin had released her arm when they reached the porch, but now he gripped it again, just above her elbow as if to steady her. They both stepped inside, and she knew the entryway, too, with a wide staircase rising from it and arched openings to each side, one leading to the living room, the other a formal dining room. She heard canned voices from a television.
“Let me take your coats.” Her father sounded shaken and his eyes never left her. As they unzipped, he raised his voice. “Helen?”
Nell let Colin take her parka, grateful for his warmth at her back. Let me support you, he’d said, and meant. Not something she was used to.
Her gaze stayed trained on the doorway to the living room. A moment later, a woman appeared in it. She wore wool slacks and a sweater that had to be cashmere. Her blond, chin-length hair was elegantly styled. She’d aged more than her husband had, but oh...that face was so familiar. From memories, and from Nell’s own mirror.
“Mom?” Nell managed to say, past the lump in her throat.
Helen’s shock was even greater than her husband’s, or only more visible. Her hand flew to her throat and she stared for the longest time before tears flooded her blue eyes. “Maddie?”
“Yes,” she said again.
“Oh, dear God.” She sagged and her husband went to her side and put an arm around her. “We thought...”
“I know.”
Nell had braced herself for her mother, at least, to want to hug her. Instead, Helen visibly pulled herself together and reached her hand out, but the gesture was tentative. Nell took her hand and waited for some deep sense of connection, but nothing came. There was an emptiness as she realized she could be clasping a complete stranger’s hand.
It was a relief when her mother let her go.
“This is...such a surprise. Marc? Did you know?”
“No. Please,” he said again, gesturing toward the living room. Looking at Colin, he said, “You found her.”
“By chance,” Colin agreed. He rested a casual hand on Nell’s back and took the seat right beside her on the sofa.
Yes, I know this room, too, although the sofa is new. Or only reupholstered?
Taking a wing chair, her father stared at her. “This is... I don’t even know what to say. I’ve always believed... You can’t know what it means to us to have you home again.”
She felt like a long-lost daughter, home again, and yet she also had a peculiar sense of distance, almost as if she were hovering over the scene. Thinking, He’s saying the right things, but I can’t tell what he really feels.
“Thank you,” she said politely. Out of the corner of her eye, she stayed aware of Colin, so large and solid. His hand lay casually on the cushion only inches from hers. She wanted to grab it and hold on.
“I don’t understand this,” her mother blurted. “Where have you been? How could you disappear and not so much as call? Do you have any idea what you did to us?”
Colin studied her mother with a sort of clinical interest. Even with his dysfunctional family background, he’d clearly expected her parents to throw themselves at her, weeping. Instead... Well, even Nell didn’t quite know whether they were in shock, were only mildly pleased to see her, or were angry because she’d been so inconsiderate as to shame them in front of the world for losing their daughter. Perhaps they were simply very reserved people. That felt right when she thought about it. She couldn’t summon a memory of being hugged.
“I suffered a head injury,” she said, her own reserve as bottomless. Nature or nurture? she asked herself, in one of those fleeting, totally irrelevant diversions. “When I woke up, I had no idea what my name was. I eventually created a new identity and a new life. My name is Nell.”
“You’ve lived all these years without knowing you’re Maddie?”
“Yes.”
Colin must have moved his hand, slightly, but enough so that it brushed hers.
Marc’s dark eyes fastened on him. “How did you find her?”
“I happened to see her interviewed on a local television show in Seattle. I tracked her down, and we talked.”
“In Seattle? You were up there for some kind of conference, weren’t you? But that was a couple of weeks or more ago!”