“Come alone if you want to learn why Daniel married you.”
The words repeated inside my head until they became deafening.
I turned toward my parents.
“Who is Claire?”
Neither answered.
“She’s your daughter, isn’t she? Your real daughter.”
Mom opened her mouth, but no words came.
Dad looked like a man watching floodwater reach his front door.
“Tell me.”
Outside, the rain had turned into a storm.
Maybe it had been raging for hours.
I hadn’t noticed.
Mom stepped toward me slowly.
“Claire was the child of a witness we protected,” she said.
“In the case. The one that collapsed.”
“Yes.”
“And you raised her? With me?”
Dad finally spoke.
