The room filled with roaring silence.
“How could he?” I whispered.
Daniel stepped forward.
“Claire, there is more.”
I backed away.
“He knew. He knew who I was, and he married me.”
“The ceremony was not legally registered.”
“What?”
“The priest was a retired family friend. No license was filed. Carl arranged it that way deliberately.”
I stared at Daniel.
“So it wasn’t real?”
“It was real to Carl in one sense, but not in the way you’re thinking.”
“What sense could possibly make this right?”
Daniel reached into the chest and removed a sealed envelope I had not noticed.
My name was written across it in Carl’s handwriting.
Below it were four words:
Read this before judging me.
My hands trembled so violently I almost tore the paper.
Inside was a shorter letter.
Claire,
By now you know I was your father’s brother.
You also know the ceremony in my living room created no legal marriage. I would never have allowed that.
