Claire gave me a tired smile. “Thank you. Really.”
Then she looked at me more closely.
Her smile faded.
“What?”
“Nothing. Sorry. You just look strangely familiar.”
She looked at me more closely.
“I don’t think we’ve met.”
“No. We haven’t.” She hesitated. “Can I ask your maiden name?”
I told her.
The moment she heard it, her face changed.
“What?”
You just look strangely familiar.
Claire glanced at Noah. “Can we not do this in front of him?”
“Mark, take the kids upstairs.”
***
When they were gone, I shut the kitchen door.
“Talk.”
“My sister was Grace.”
Her face changed.
“Was?”
“She died last year. She was Noah’s mother.”
My stomach tightened. “What does that have to do with me?”
“I don’t know if it does. Grace and I weren’t close.”
“Then why did my name scare you?”
My sister was Grace.
“It didn’t. I recognized it. Grace mentioned it before.”
