family.
She had been around five the last time I saw her.
I turned toward Lily.
Daniel’s daughter.
My niece.
“Oh my God.”
I caught the edge of my desk.
Daniel stared at me in equal shock.
“Rachel?”
“What are you doing here?”
His expression changed.
Confusion became realization.
Then horror.
“Oh, God.”
“What?”
He looked at Lily.
Then back at me.
“Paul didn’t tell you.”
Every sound in the room seemed to disappear.
I heard only my own heartbeat.
“Tell me what?”
Daniel slowly sat down.
“I moved back three months ago.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Three months?”
Daniel and Paul hadn’t spoken properly in years.
Their relationship had broken apart after a bitter dispute over their father’s estate. What began as an argument became resentment, and resentment eventually became silence.
When Maggie died, Daniel sent flowers.
Paul removed the card before I saw
it.
That had been the last contact between our families.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“My wife got a job nearby. Mom’s getting older. And…” He looked uncomfortable. “I got tired of pretending I wanted to stay angry with my brother forever.”
I stared at him.
“Does Paul know you came back?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know Lily attends this school?”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“Yes.”
Something inside me cracked.
Paul knew.
He had known who Lily was.
He had known there was a perfectly logical reason she looked so much like Maggie.
And all those nights I had questioned myself…
All those moments I wondered whether grief had distorted my mind…
He had known.
I turned toward Lily.
Her cheeks were wet.
“You knew too?”
“Not at first,” she whispered.
“When?”
“A few weeks after I joined your class.”
“How?”
“I saw a photograph at Grandma’s house.”
My
