The photograph was dated just three weeks before my mother died.
I unfolded the letter.
My dear Daniel,
There are things I never wanted to tell you because I know how deeply you love your wife.
But love without truth can become a dangerous kind of blindness.
I discovered something about Claire that frightened me.
I tried to speak with her.
She begged me to stay silent.
She said she would explain everything to you when the time was right.
I wanted to believe her.
But then I found out she had been meeting someone connected to our family’s past.
Someone I prayed would never find us again.
I stopped reading.
My hands were trembling so badly that the paper rattled.
Jamie watched me.
“Daniel?”
I forced myself to continue.
If Claire ever turns you against your brother, ask yourself why.
Jamie remembers more than people think.
And there is one thing he saw when he was a child that someone desperately wants him to forget.
