“Yes.”
“You knew when Mark was gone.”
His voice cracked.
“Yes.”
Lydia wiped her eyes.
“Then whatever happens next, you do not get to decide what I’m ready to know.”
Graham looked at her for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
The Photograph From Before
Elaine reached into her purse.
“Then we tell her everything.”
Arthur immediately stiffened.
“Elaine, maybe not here.”
She looked at him sharply.
“That sentence has controlled this family long enough.”
She handed Lydia an old photograph.
In it, young Graham and Elaine stood outside their old Illinois home.
Six-year-old Lydia sat on her father’s shoulders.
Another couple stood beside them with a dark-haired boy around Hazel’s age.
“Who are they?”
“Caleb and Nora Rusk,” Elaine said. “They worked with us.”
“And the boy?”
“Owen.”
Elaine explained that the Rusks had disappeared shortly before Graham’s crash.
For years, everyone assumed the family had vanished because of the financial investigation.
