“You said Carl promised someone he would protect me. Was it my father?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Your mother.”
“Evelyn survived?”
“For three days,” Thomas said quietly. “Long enough to get you to Elaine.”
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
No memory came. Only impressions: smoke reflected on water, a woman singing, cold air, strong arms carrying me through trees.
“Was Lenora responsible?”
“We could never prove it,” Daniel said. “The investigator assigned to the case lost evidence. Witnesses changed their stories. Records vanished.”
“And Carl?”
“He was nineteen,” Thomas replied. “He spent years searching for proof. Lenora’s people followed him. That is why he stayed away from you.”
“Why did Elaine lie about who I was?”
“To keep you invisible.”
“Then why did Carl suddenly come into my life?”
Neither man answered.
I thought of his thin face, his tired smile, the game pieces lined up between us.
