The room seemed to shrink.
My mother?
Noah whispered, “Grandma?”
Aunt Margaret’s eyes shone on the screen.
“Daniel found fragments of that truth. Not all of it. Enough to become useful to dangerous people. Enough to make him believe he could bargain with what was never his.”
I felt cold from the inside out.
The man in the photograph.
The fraud arrest.
What had Daniel sold?
Aunt Margaret leaned closer.
“Do not trust the public story of your mother’s death.”
The words struck so hard I gripped the edge of the desk.
Lily gasped.
Mr. Meyers whispered, “Margaret…”
On the screen, my aunt’s voice softened.
“Emily, I know this will hurt. But grief built on lies becomes a cage. Truth is the key, even when it cuts the hand that turns it.”
Tears slipped down my face.
Aunt Margaret reached toward the camera, as if she could touch me across time.
