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looked when he pinned Faust to certain damnation.
    “Do you?”
    She shuddered. “No. But you’re not funny. It’s too close to a gothic horror story to joke about.”
    “All we need is a crazy lady in the attic.”
    “There isn’t one, is there?”
    “No.” He picked up his mug and walked to the fireplace. “Just a few skeletons in the closets.”
    “In my closet anyway. I just found out I’m not really my mother’s daughter. I don’t know who my mother is. Instead of proposing to me, Peter’s going back to law school . . .” She hadn’t meant to tell him that.
    “The boyfriend?”
    “Not the boyfriend, my boyfriend.”
    “You have had an exciting birthday, haven’t you?”
    She glared at him, a thousand things going through her mind.
    “Don’t say it.”
    “What?”
    “Whatever you were about to say about me being a big brute, distant and unfeeling, callous and out of touch, and that I never really liked him anyway.”
    “Well, you didn’t.”
    “I didn’t not like him.”
    It had been exactly what she was thinking, even though she knew it wasn’t really true. Except about Peter. Alden was worse than her dad about Peter. Her dad. Had he known when he married her mother that Meri wasn’t really hers?
    “I was just going to say that you don’t understand.”
    “Actually I do.” He put his mug down and sat down next to her. “You have a family who loves you, no, who dotes on you.”
    “But—”
    “No buts. They adore you. Always have. Always will.”
    “But I’m not really—”
    “Oh, for God’s sake, will you give it a rest? Blood is highly overrated. Family is not about somebody who can get knocked up in thirty seconds of poor decision making. It’s about who loves you unconditionally for life. When you’re good, when you screw up, when you hurt them more than they deserve.
    “My mother left my father and me when I was eight. Dad neglected her, so she found somebody else. She had to choose between him and us—him and me. She chose him. That’s blood for you. After she left, your mother and Gran became my mother and gran. That’s family. Finish your tea. I’ll walk you back.”
    They finished the tea in silence. She knew he was mad at her, but that was because he didn’t really understand what she felt.
    He put his cup down and stood. “Come on. I’ll find you a rain slicker. I think Nora left one that might fit you. She’s as tall as you are now.”
    She put her cup on the tray. “Don’t be mad at me.”
    “I’m not mad.”
    “You are. I know you all want what’s best for me. I know they love me, and I love them.” I even love you, you big bully. But she would never say so. “I just wasn’t expecting this; I wish it didn’t have to be so complicated.”
    Alden passed his hand over his face.
    “What now? I said I was sorry.”
    “Let’s just go.”
    D an hung up the phone. “That was Alden. He’s bringing her back.”
    Therese held tight to the back of the kitchen chair. She felt old. Maybe too old to face what might lay ahead. And she hated being in the position she’d been placed.
    She’d had two choices, either lie to her dying daughter or lie to her granddaughter. What choices. Maybe she should have stuck with the living. Did the dead know whether their wishes were carried out or not? Did they care?
    “How can I face her after what I’ve done? I should never have given her the letter, but I promised.”
    “I know, Therese. This is what Laura wanted. But for heaven’s sake, hide that box. I don’t want to put her through any more tonight. She has enough to come to terms with. There’s plenty of time for the whole story to come out, once she’s gotten used to this part.”
    Therese Calder slowly shook her head. “No. No more tonight.” She turned toward the hutch. God, she wanted to take the contents of that box and throw them into the fire. But it was too late for that. Once you started unraveling the past, you couldn’t stop it until you