buried.*
I looked at Daniel.
“Keep reading,” he said.
*Your mother believed Claire betrayed her. She was wrong about the reason, but not about the betrayal itself.*
My fingers went cold.
*Claire did not abandon Margaret. She protected the person Margaret feared most.*
I read the sentence twice.
“Who?”
Daniel stepped closer.
The final lines were written darker than the rest, as if the pen had been pressed hard against the paper.
*Samuel Reed was not your father.*
*He was your mother’s brother.*
I stopped breathing.
Beneath that, one last
