her.”
“My mother was leaving?”
“She had relatives in Oregon.
She had money hidden.”
Rosalie remembered a small blue sewing box her mother had always kept locked.
After Eleanor’s death, it had disappeared.
Silas continued.
“She said she would tell everyone what happened to Gideon.
She said she would take you and go.”
“Then she died.”
Silence.
Rosalie felt the world tilt.
Eleanor had died after falling from the loft stairs.
That was the story.
A loose board.
A tragic fall.
Rosalie had found her at the bottom.
For ten years she had dreamed of that morning.
Her mother’s blue dress.
Blood at the temple.
Her father’s hands on Rosalie’s shoulders.
Don’t look.
Rosalie whispered, “Did she fall?”
Merrick stood.
“Rosalie.”
She turned toward him.
His expression told her everything before he spoke.
“No.”
The word left Merrick like confession.
“No, she didn’t.”
Silas closed his eyes.
Rosalie could barely
