I stared at him.
“Does Paul know you came back?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know Lily attends this school?”
Daniel’s face drained of color.
“Yes.”
Something inside me cracked.
Paul knew.
He had known who Lily was.
He had known there was a perfectly logical reason she looked so much like Maggie.
And all those nights I had questioned myself…
All those moments I wondered whether grief had distorted my mind…
He had known.
I turned toward Lily.
Her cheeks were wet.
“You knew too?”
“Not at first,” she whispered.
“When?”
“A few weeks after I joined your class.”
“How?”
“I saw a photograph at Grandma’s house.”
My chest tightened.
“A photograph?”
“You. Uncle Paul. Maggie.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Lily continued.
“Dad explained who you were. He told me the family situation was complicated and said I shouldn’t bring it up.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“I thought you already knew we were here, Rachel.”
I barely heard him.
I was looking at Lily.
“When did you realize I didn’t know?”
Her face crumpled.
“One day you looked at me when I put my hair up.”
I swallowed.
“And?”
“You looked so sad.”
The words were barely audible.
“That was when I understood.”
I covered my mouth.
Lily suddenly turned toward her father.
“You and Mom kept telling me the adults would deal with everything.”
Her voice began to rise.
“But nobody dealt with anything.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
She was right.
A sixteen-year-old girl had been forced to carry the emotional consequences of a feud that began before she was old enough to understand it.
And I had unknowingly become part of that burden.
I picked up my phone.
I called Paul.
He answered almost immediately.
“Rachel?”
“Daniel and Lily are here.”
Silence.
I continued.
“Come home.”
“Rachel, wait—”
“No.”
My voice was shaking now.
“You can explain everything when you get here.”
Then I hung up.
Part 5 — What Paul Had Hidden From Me
That evening, Daniel and Lily sat in our living room.
Nobody knew what to say.
When the front door finally opened, Paul stepped inside and stopped.
He saw his brother.
Then Lily.
Then me.
His face collapsed.
“You brought her into this?”
I stood.
“She was already in it.”
Paul looked toward Lily.
She was sitting rigidly beside her father, her hands clenched together.
Then he looked at me.
“I was going to tell you.”
