Page 3 of The Hidden Daughter (The Lost Daughters #7)
When one of the waiting staff called out that there was a woman asking to see her, Charlotte had forgotten all about her scheduled visitor. She nodded and finished plating up, taking a moment to appreciate the food spread out in front of her before wiping her hands clean.
The other chefs were due into the kitchen within minutes, and although she’d hoped to eat with them one last time, to gather round in the kitchen for one final meal before the first service of the day began, she knew her grandmother was counting on her.
She turned back at the last minute and took two of the plates, her stomach rumbling after so long cooking and not eating. She’d been up since before five, and so far she was running on coffee and little else.
With the two plates in hand, Charlotte walked backwards into the kitchen door so that it bumped open. The restaurant was still relatively quiet and completely empty of guests, and she gestured with her head to the staff who’d already arrived for their shift.
‘Everyone, food’s ready,’ she called out. ‘Plates are in the kitchen.’
‘What is it today, chef?’ one of the guys called out.
‘I’m calling it the Cheeky Hash,’ she said. ‘Braised beef cheek, pressed potato and my special hollandaise. It’s the perfect hangover cure.’
It was a breakfast she was certain would be a hit with the younger staff members in particular—they were always certain to have a headache on a Saturday morning and come to work bleary-eyed from the night before.
But before she could call out anything else, she saw a woman rise to stand at a far corner table. She was wearing jeans and a silk shirt, her long hair tied back in a simple ponytail and a coat slung over the chair behind her.
‘You must be Mia,’ Charlotte said. ‘Sorry to keep you waiting. Any chance you’re hungry?’
The woman had looked a little nervous, but at the mention of food she smiled. ‘I actually haven’t eaten this morning, but I don’t want to impose.’
‘You’re not. It’s my treat to everyone here for my final day, and I just happen to have cooked more than I needed to.
’ Charlotte set the plate in front of her.
‘My grandmother tells me you’re from a law firm.
That something was left for her?’ As she said the words, she wondered if it was strange for a lawyer to be working on a Saturday.
Mia shook her head as she sat down. ‘I’m actually not, and it’s rather a long story, but the lawyer who originally contacted your grandmother has been working for me, sorry, with me, to find the intended recipients for some items left behind many decades ago.
I decided when I found them that I wanted to be the one to personally connect them with whomever they’d been left for. ’
Charlotte frowned, suddenly wondering how legitimate this all was. She hoped her grandmother hadn’t fallen for a scam. She cleared her throat as she considered the woman sat before her. ‘When you say items…’
‘My aunt’s name was Hope Berenson, and she ran a home for unmarried mothers and their babies.
The women who gave birth there sometimes left behind a small box of special mementos for their child before they were placed for adoption, and only to be given to them when they turned twenty-one.
I have one of those boxes with me, for your grandmother. ’
Charlotte had been about to take her first mouthful of food, but she left her fork hovering as she lifted her gaze again to meet Mia’s.
‘I’m sorry, you’re trying to tell me that my grandmother was adopted?
’ Charlotte shook her head. ‘That’s impossible, because my great-grandmother is still alive.
If you’d seen them both, you’d know they were biologically related just from looking at them. It’s just not possible.’
Mia’s eyebrows pulled together, as if she was trying to figure something out.
‘Well, here’s the thing. We have no records for your grandmother of an adoption taking place, whereas with all the other women who had boxes left for them, there were meticulous records about their adoptions.
It’s why they were all claimed some time ago, but your grandmother’s box was harder to connect with its namesake.
Your grandmother was very hard to track down, as it happens, because it was her maiden name in the records, and she left no forwarding address.
We had to hire a private investigator to find her. ’
They sat in silence for a moment, and Charlotte took the chance to have a mouthful of food, trying to process what she was being told and placate her hunger at the same time.
‘If my grandmother wasn’t adopted, then why would you have a box for her?’
Mia looked as puzzled as Charlotte felt, but didn’t say anything until after she’d reached into her bag and taken out a small wooden box. She placed it on the table between them, and Charlotte found she couldn’t take her eyes off it.
‘Since the other boxes were found, I discovered my aunt’s diary, which helped me to better understand her work,’ Mia said.
‘I believe that your great-grandmother may have given birth at Hope’s House, but then chose to leave with her baby.
Or at least, that’s what I’ve been able to piece together so far.
For some reason, she doesn’t appear to have proceeded with the adoption. ’
Charlotte set down her fork and reached for the box. She hesitated before touching it, her hand hovering.
‘May I?’ Charlotte asked.
‘Of course. To the best of my knowledge, it’s never been opened, so I don’t know if there’s even anything inside, but I wanted your grandmother or someone close to her to be the one who opened it, just in case.’
Charlotte glanced at the handwritten tag with her grandmother’s maiden name printed on it, running her fingers over the string that held the name tag and the box together.
It was old and fraying at the edges, and it made her curious as to how long the box had been hidden, waiting for someone to claim it.
‘Where exactly did you find it?’ Charlotte asked as she lifted the box.
Mia had taken a mouthful of food now, and she held her hand up to cover her mouth as she spoke. ‘This is really good,’ she said. ‘I mean, really good.’
Charlotte smiled. ‘Thank you.’
‘But to answer your question, I found a collection of these boxes beneath the floorboards in my aunt’s office.
The old house she lived and worked in was about to be pulled down, and I had one last chance to go in and look through her things, in case anything had been missed.
I thought I was just going in to retrieve a rug and a couple of old lamps!
I certainly had no idea there would be anything hidden, or quite what a journey it would take me on, trying to find each intended recipient. ’
Charlotte turned the box over in her hands, still finding it hard to take her eyes from it. ‘And there’s nothing you want in return for this?’
The other woman’s eyes widened. ‘No, absolutely not. I don’t want anything from you other than to return this box to its rightful owner and clear my conscience in the process. I couldn’t stand to keep it, knowing how meaningful the items inside it might be.’
She was inclined to believe her. There was something about Mia that Charlotte was drawn to, a warmth perhaps, and as strange as it all was, she couldn’t help but be curious.
‘You mentioned that there was a collection of boxes. Did you return them all to the women they were left for?’ Charlotte asked, setting the box down in front of her.
Mia’s smile lit her entire face at the mention of the other boxes.
‘Yes, the other six boxes were surprisingly easy to return. My aunt’s lawyer invited the descendants of the six women to his offices, and we were able to reunite each box with the named recipient’s family.
’ Mia’s eyes met hers. ‘I don’t know if it was just by chance or if it was fate, but it’s no exaggeration to say that those boxes changed the lives of the women who received them. ’
Charlotte wasn’t the type of person to believe in fate—she believed in hard work, sacrifice and determination—but she was still curious about the boxes. ‘When you say their little boxes changed their lives…’
‘I think you’ll want to see what’s inside, if the other boxes are anything to go by,’ Mia said. ‘You might be surprised what family secrets are waiting to be discovered.’
‘Well, thank you for coming here today,’ Charlotte said. ‘I know my grandmother appreciated the personal delivery, as do I.’
‘Please, take my phone number, just in case you want to talk about whatever you find inside,’ Mia said. ‘I’ve come to learn more about my aunt and the work she did over the past few years, since we first discovered these boxes, so please feel free to reach out.’
Charlotte took the card Mia held out with her number written on it and slipped it into her pocket.
‘Thank you for brunch, it was delicious.’
Charlotte said goodbye and watched Mia go, the box still on the table where she’d left it.
She glanced at the clock as she gathered up the two plates and turned back towards the kitchen, realising how much time had passed.
Calling her grandma and finding out what was in that box would have to wait—she had lunch service ahead of her, and she wouldn’t give up her last hours at Velluto for anything.