Everyone believed him when he said I was unstable.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Eventually, I became unstable.”
I could barely listen.
“I spent nine years trying to get out.
By then Helen had moved.
Harold refused to tell me where.”
My anger shifted.
“Why?”
Rose looked at Evelyn.
“Because he thought I would lead Thomas to you.”
“Did Thomas know I survived?”
“No.”
“
Then why keep it secret after he died?”
Rose’s expression changed.
“Thomas Vale didn’t die.”
A chill ran through me.
“What do you mean?”
“He changed his name.”Browse Reference
I stared.
“To what?”
Rose’s lips trembled.
“I never knew.”
Then she looked toward the doorway behind me.
And everything in her face changed.
Terror.
I turned.
Margaret stood there.
She had arrived without telling us.
Rose’s voice became a whisper.
“You.”
Margaret stopped.
“Rose.”
“You lied to me.”
Margaret went pale.
“I protected her.”
“No,” Rose said.
“You protected Harold.”
I looked between them.
“What is she talking about?”
Margaret said nothing.
Rose suddenly laughed.
A terrible, broken sound.
“You still haven’t told her.”
“Rose.”
“You still haven’t told her who Thomas Vale became.”
Margaret gripped the back of a chair.
My heart pounded.
“Who?”
Rose pointed at Margaret.
“Ask her husband.”
I froze.
“Harold?”
Rose’s eyes burned.
“Thomas Vale was
Harold Whitaker.”
The room exploded into silence.
I stared at Margaret.
She did not deny it.
My knees nearly gave out.
“No.”
Margaret began to cry.
I had seen her cry once over Harold’s wedding ring.Book Venues
Nothing like this.
“His full name,” she whispered, “was Harold Thomas Vale Whitaker.”
I backed away.
“No.”
“Carly—”
“Your husband was my father?”
“Yes.”
The word destroyed everything.
Harold.
The smiling man in the photographs I had dusted every Thursday.
The wedding ring I had found.
The man Margaret spoke about with tenderness.
