The older woman wore a beautiful gold ring with an enormous diamond.
The very same ring Ellie had discovered at Walmart.
I looked at the girl.
Dark hair.
Familiar eyes.
A smile I’d recognize anywhere.
My heart seemed to stop.
It was Claire.
My daughter-in-law.
Ellie’s mother.
I knew Claire well, but I’d met her when she was already an adult.
I’d never seen a photograph of her as a teenager.
Claire and my son, Daniel, had died in a car accident three years earlier.
Ellie had been only four.
Since then, I’d been the only family she’d known.
My eyes filled with tears as I studied the photograph.
“Where did you get this?”
The stranger’s expression softened.
“The older woman is my mother, Eleanor. The girl is my sister, Claire.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible. Claire never told me she had a brother.”
