“Your father is sitting in an urn, Claire. He left me a warning inside his wedding ring. We are absolutely doing this now.”
Her head jerked up.
“What?”
I took the ring from my purse and held it out.
She stared at the engraving.
“Oh, Dad.”
“You knew?”
“Not what he wrote.”
“Then start explaining.”
Claire sat across from me.
“Eli’s father left before he was born. Dad and I weren’t speaking then.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was ashamed.”
“Of having a child?”
“Of everything.”
She wiped at her face.
“When Dad and I finally started talking again, Eli was three. Dad came to visit. I asked him not to tell anyone yet.”
“Anyone?”
“You.”
That answer hurt more than I expected.
“Why me?”
“Because you had spent years trying to make me feel like part of your family, and I kept pushing you away. Then suddenly I had an entire child I’d hidden from you.”
“So you just kept hiding him.”
“At first, I thought I would tell you soon.”
“And then?”
“Every year made the lie worse.”
I gave a bitter laugh.
“That’s usually what lies do.”
Claire nodded.
“Dad started saying the same thing.”
I looked down at the ring.
“Is that why he came here?”
She hesitated.
“Partly.”
Claire was selling the house.
She and Eli were preparing to move back to our town.
Frank had come overseas determined to convince her that she had to tell me about Eli before they arrived.
“He said we couldn’t just walk into your life and pretend the last twelve years never happened,” Claire said.
“So he finally developed a conscience?”
She flinched.
“He had been telling me for years that I needed to tell you.”
“But he still protected your secret.”
“Yes.”
That one word mattered.
Claire didn’t try to defend him.
“He loved you,” she said quietly. “And he failed you.”
I turned my face away.
Apparently both things could be true at the same time.
After a moment, I looked again at the ring.
“When did he change the engraving?”
Claire frowned.
“What do you mean?”
I explained that the inscription was new.
