he picked up his phone.
“I’m coming.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because this is my mother’s secret.”
“And Claire’s.”
“That doesn’t make it yours.”
Daniel’s expression remained calm, but something wounded moved behind his eyes.
“Claire made it mine when she asked me to protect whatever she had left behind.”
“I’m not something to protect.”
“No,” he said. “You’re someone who has been left alone with too many unanswered questions.”
The words struck me more gently than pity would have.
I looked away.
From the living room came
