Chapter 2 - The Photograph Hidden in a Cookbook
Her name was Piper Monroe.
Two days earlier, Piper had been looking for an overdue utility notice in the small apartment she shared with her mother, Laurel, and her two-year-old sister, Wren.
Instead, she found an old photograph tucked inside a cookbook.
Her mother looked much younger in it.
Standing beside her was a man Piper recognized.
Graham Ellison.
Even children knew his face in Philadelphia. His company name appeared on buildings, charity events, and business articles.
On the back of the photograph was a date from almost thirteen years earlier.
Piper did the math.
Then she confronted her mother.
“Who is Graham Ellison?”
Laurel’s face lost its color.
“Where did you find that?”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Laurel slowly sat at the kitchen table.
For several moments, she couldn’t speak.
Piper placed the photograph between them.
“Is he my father?”
Laurel closed her eyes.
That was enough.
Piper felt as though the floor had moved beneath her.
“He is, isn’t he?”
Finally, Laurel whispered:
“Yes.”
Piper backed away.
“Does he know about me?”
Laurel’s silence answered again.
“Mom.”
“No.”
Piper couldn’t understand how one word could change twelve years of her life.
Every school form.
Every Father’s Day project.
Every time she had asked why she didn’t have a dad.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Laurel wiped her eyes.
“I tried once. Then everything became complicated.”
“Adults always say complicated when they don’t want to explain something.”
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Laurel looked hurt, but Piper was too angry to stop.
What Piper didn’t yet know was that her mother was carrying another secret.
