Sammy, Veda and Leila Cruz, alias Leila Smith
Some of the people saved by Primary Asset n°1 weren't exactly in a suitable position to learn of his death. Some, even if years had passed since the day they had been saved by John Reese, were still children. And for these people, the Machine could only contact their parents, because you didn't send an obituary to a child.
Or, in Leila Cruz's case, to her grandparents.
Three days had passed since Primary Asset n°1's demise, when Veda Cruz went to get her mail and found a kraft paper envelope amongst her letters. At first, the woman thought it was yet another check from Leila's father, but this month's had already arrived.
For a while, the Cruzs hadn't heard a thing from the Petrosians, except what was being said on TV about the wife's trial. It seemed as if Adnan Petrosian was either too ashamed to claim his daughter, which they wouldn't have allowed anyway, or too uninterested to think about his illegitimate child. Eitherway, Sammy and Veda Cruz had been satisfied with the way things had happened. Yes, their daughter was still dead, but at least they had their granddaughter.
It hurt a bit, each time they noticed how much Leila looked like her father, and how little like Claudia. But they loved her anyway. They lived happily together.
They had gotten quite a compensation from the Petrosians after the trial, enough to live with a baby at charge, and to ensure that Leila would study whatever she wanted when she'd be an adult.
Then, one day, two years after Claudia's murder, Sammy Cruz had found a check in his mail, with Leila's name on the envelope. A check that came back every month, now.
It hadn't taken much to figure out who was the sender.
The grandparents weren't certain what to do about Adnan Petrosian's money, so they simply saved it for Leila's future. They weren't quite sure what to do about Adnan Petrosian himself, but the man never tried to come and see his daughter. Perhaps he was ashamed of his wife's actions.
What the Cruzs knew, was that if two strangers hadn't come in the way of Nicola Petrosian, their granddaughter would not be there. They wouldn't even know they had a granddaughter.
Everything that was their lives today, they owed to the two men who had intervened.
So when Veda Cruz opened that envelope, and saw a notice of death with the face of one of these men on it, she immediately called her husband and her granddaughter. The woman only wished Leila didn't have to see a picture of the man her grandparents often told her about in such circumstances. But just as Leila, and not Claudia, had been saved, it appeared that life wasn't always merciful enough.