“Evelyn?”
Her face was pale.
“Daniel, we need to talk.”
“Where’s Claire?”
Evelyn glanced over her shoulder.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean?”
“She left me a message. I came because I was worried.”
I stared at the box.
“What’s that?”
Evelyn looked down.
Her hands tightened around it.
“Something your mother gave me a long time ago.”
My heartbeat became painfully loud.
“You knew my mother?”
She closed her eyes.
Then whispered, “Yes.”
“How long?”
She opened them.
“Longer than you can imagine.”
Behind me, Jamie appeared.
The moment Evelyn saw him, her face changed.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, Jamie.”
My brother stopped walking.
He stared at her.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Jamie whispered a name.
Not Evelyn.
Not Mrs. Carter.
A name I had never heard before.
“Miss Rose?”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
A sob escaped her.
And I knew, with a certainty that terrified me, that my brother recognized her from somewhere far older than my marriage.
