Chapter 28
Sofia rose so quickly that her cane fell.
Victor caught her arm.
“What is it?” he asked.
“My father had a house in Connecticut,” she said. “There was a child there. I saw her once through a window.”
“Who was she?”
“I was told she belonged to one of the staff.”
“But you didn’t believe that.”
“No.”
Sofia looked toward Lily again.
“The girl had Annie’s eyes.”
I stepped between them.
“Stop looking at my daughter.”
Sofia’s face softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying she has someone’s eyes. She has her own.”
“You’re right.”
“She is not a symbol. She is not proof. She is not the return of some child who disappeared before I was born.”
“You’re right,” Sofia said again.
My anger faltered.
There was no resistance in her.
Only grief.
I looked down at Lily.
She was awake now, watching me with solemn curiosity.
I kissed her forehead.
Her fever had fallen enough that her skin no longer frightened me.
That mattered.
Whatever names waited inside hidden records, whatever secrets had crossed generations, Lily was here.
She needed warmth, medicine, and a mother who did not disappear into the past.
“I need to know one thing,” I said.
Sofia waited.
“Why did you point at Lily and say she was Annie?”
“I did not mean she is the same person.”
“Then what did you mean?”
Sofia opened her locket.
May you like
Inside was not a photograph.
It held a tiny piece of paper marked with a sequence of numbers.
