PART 18
I stared at Daniel.
“Thomas knew?”
“We believe so.”
“About Noah?”
“Yes.”
“For seventeen years?”
“Possibly from the beginning.”
My grief turned into something sharp.
Mark’s letter suddenly made sense.
Rebecca’s mother had told him she disappeared.
But somebody else had helped keep the truth buried.
His own father.
PART 19
Thomas arrived at the hospital before I could call him.
He walked into the consultation room.
Saw Daniel.
Saw the photograph.
Then stopped.
Nobody needed to accuse him.
His face did it for us.
“You knew,” I said.
He sat slowly.
“Emily—”
“How long?”
He covered his face.
“Seventeen years.”
PART 20
I wanted to scream.
Instead, my voice became quiet.
“You let your son die believing he lost seventeen years with his child.”
Thomas began crying.
He explained.
When Mark was twenty-one, Rebecca became pregnant.
She told Thomas before she told Mark.
Thomas hated her family.
He believed Rebecca wanted access to the Carter family’s money.
