“What?”
Mark didn’t answer.
“Mark?”
He blinked and finally looked at me.
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
Emma looked between us. “Dad?”
Mark forced a smile.
“Hey, Em. Why don’t you show Noah your science project?”
Noah stood. “I should probably go.”
“No,” I said. “Nobody’s going anywhere until I reach your aunt.”
The kids disappeared upstairs, and I grabbed Mark’s wrist.
“What was that?”
“I thought he looked like someone.”
“Who?”
Mark rubbed both hands over his face.
“Look at his eyes.”
“What?”
“His eyes. And his chin.”
I stared at him. “Mark, he’s ten. Stop talking in riddles.”
“Wait here.”
He pulled down a box we’d taken from Dad’s house after he died.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for proof that I’m losing my mind.”
He opened an old album, flipped through several pages, then pushed one photograph toward me.
My father, Robert, was maybe ten in it.
I stopped breathing.
The same heavy brows. The same gray-green eyes. Even the tiny dimple in the center of his chin.
“No,” I whispered.
“You see it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“I know.”
“Lots of people look alike.”
“Not that much.”
“Then why did you recognize him?”
Mark tapped the picture. “Your dad kept this exact photo framed in his office. I saw it every Christmas for fifteen years.”
“You really think they look that much alike?”
Mark looked toward the stairs.
“Sophie, when Noah looked up at me, for half a second I thought I was standing in your dad’s office again.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“Dad didn’t have any grandchildren besides Emma.”
“I didn’t say he did.”
“You were thinking about it.”
Mark looked back at the photograph.
“I’m thinking there’s a reason that kid scared the hell out of me.”
And that was when my phone rang.
“Hello?”
A breathless woman answered. “Is this Emma’s mother? I’m Claire. Noah’s aunt.”
“Yes. He’s safe. He’s here with us.”
“Oh, thank God. Noah left me a note, but I didn’t see it until I got home.”
“I’m sorry. Emma should have called first.”
“No. I’m sorry. I’ll come get him.”
Twenty minutes later, Claire stood on my porch looking exhausted.
“Noah!”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Claire.”
She pulled him into her arms. “You cannot disappear like that.”
“I left a note.”
“A note I found two hours later.”
“I was hungry.”
Her face tightened. “I know, baby.”
Emma appeared beside him. “He can take the rest of the cake.”
“Absolutely.”
Claire gave me a tired smile. “Thank you. Really.”
Then she looked at me more closely.
Her smile faded.
“What?”
“Nothing. Sorry. You just look strangely familiar.”
“I don’t think we’ve met.”
“No. We haven’t.” She hesitated. “Can I ask your maiden name?”
I told her.
The moment she heard it, her face changed.
“What?”
Claire glanced at Noah. “Can we not do this in front of him?”
“Mark, take the kids upstairs.”
When they were gone, I shut the kitchen door.
“Talk.”
“My sister was Grace.”
“Was?”
“She died last year. She was Noah’s mother.”
My stomach tightened. “What does that have to do with me?”
“I don’t know if it does. Grace and I weren’t close.”
“Then why did my name scare you?”
“It didn’t. I recognized it. Grace mentioned it before.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. She had secrets. Old photographs, letters, things she never explained.”
“What kind of things?”
“Once she mentioned a man with your last name. Robert, I think.”
I went still. “My father’s name was Robert.”
Claire stared at me.
“Who was he to Grace?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“You never asked?”
“Sometimes. She changed the subject.”
“Where are those letters?”
“In boxes. After Grace died, I had three kids to feed and a funeral to pay for.”
“Three?”
“My two and Noah.”
“And Noah’s father?”
Her mouth tightened. “When he’s sober, he remembers he has a son.”
“That’s why Noah was hungry?”
“I’ve been stretching groceries until payday. His father was supposed to send money last week.”
I looked toward the stairs.
Claire picked up Noah’s coat.
“If Robert was your father, ask someone who knew him back then.”
“My mother.”
She nodded. “Because whatever Grace knew, she never told me enough to make sense of it.”
“Did she ever say Robert was family?”
“No.”
“Did she ever say he wasn’t?”
Claire looked at me.
“No.”
Mark stopped me after Claire left.
“Sophie, she barely knew anything.”
“She knew Dad’s name.”
“That could mean a hundred things.”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll drive.”
“No. Stay with Emma.”
“What are you going to ask Susan?”
I picked up Noah’s photograph. “Why a dead woman I never met knew my father.”
Mom opened the door in pajamas. “Honey? What happened?”
I placed Noah’s picture on the table. “Do you know this boy?”
She picked it up.
Her face changed.
“You know something.”
“Sophie…”
“His name is Noah. His mother was Grace.”
Mom went still.
The picture slipped from her fingers.
I thought that look had told me everything.
By the end of the night, I’d learn how wrong I was.
“You knew Grace.”
“No.”
“You knew the name.”
She stared at the table. “I knew of her.”
“How?”
“Through your father.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sophie, some things should stay in the past.”
“Not when the past just walked into my house hungry.”
She closed her eyes.
“Did Dad know Grace?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“There was a woman named Linda.”
“Grace’s mother?”
“Yes.”
“How well did Dad know her?”
Mom’s jaw tightened. “He had an affair.”
For a second, I forgot about Noah.
“What?”
“You were three. It lasted a few months. Maybe longer.”
“So Dad cheated on you with Linda.”
“Yes.”
“And you stayed?”
“I loved him. You were three. He swore it was over.”
“But Linda came back.”
Mom looked at Noah’s photograph. “Years later.”
“Why?”
“She wanted something from your father.”
“What?”
“I never knew. There were calls, meetings, arguments. Robert said he was handling it.”
“Was Grace involved?”
Mom looked away.
“You know she was.”
“I knew Grace existed.”
“How?”
“Linda once said Grace was the reason she needed to speak to Robert.”
“Was Grace his daughter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you ask?”
“Of course. Your father told me not to worry about it.”
“And you stopped asking?”
“Eventually.”
“Why?”
“Because every answer threatened to destroy the life I had.”
I picked up Noah’s photograph. “Does he look like Dad to you?”
Mom didn’t answer.
“Look at him.”
“I did.”
“And?”
Her voice broke. “That’s what frightens me.”
For the first time, I realized she might genuinely not know.
I stood. “I’m leaving.”
“Wait.”
Mom disappeared into the hallway and returned with an envelope.
My name was written across the front in Dad’s handwriting.
“What is that?”
“Something I promised myself I would never give you.”
“Why?”
“Because your father is dead. Linda is dead. I thought Grace was gone from our lives too.”
“She is dead.”
Mom closed her eyes.
“Give it to me.”
“Sophie…”
“Give me the letter.”
Her hand shook as she passed it over. “I found it after your father’s funeral.”
“Three years ago?”
“Yes.”
“And you hid it.”
“I thought knowing would only hurt you.”
“You didn’t get to decide that.”
I tore it open.
“Sophie,
There is something about my life I should have told you years ago.”
Mom stared at the floor.
I kept reading.
“When you were little, I betrayed your mother with a woman named Linda. There is no excuse for it. I hurt your mother, and I nearly destroyed our family.”
My hands began to shake.
“What I did not know then was that Linda became pregnant.”
