DANIEL — ONLY IF YOU NEED TO KNOW.
I stared at the handwriting.
Mom’s handwriting.
My throat tightened.
“Where did you get this?”
“Mom gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before she went to the hospital the last time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jamie looked uncomfortable.
“She said not to give it to you unless something happened that made me afraid.”
My hands began shaking.
“Afraid of what?”
He swallowed.
“Claire.”
I felt the room tilt.
My mother had died two years before Sophie was born.
She had adored Claire in public.
At least, that’s what I thought.
I took the envelope.
The paper had yellowed around the edges.
Inside was a handwritten letter and a photograph.
The photograph showed Claire standing outside a building I didn’t recognize.
Beside her was a tall man in a dark coat.
His face was turned away.
But his hand rested intimately against her lower back.
