Julian's breathing grew uneven.
"What was your mommy's name?"
"Rose."
"And...what was your grandma's name?"
Lily frowned, trying to remember.
"Mommy said Grandma's real name was Eleanor."
Julian's face turned pale.
Around them, conversations stopped completely.
Victoria folded her arms.
"Oh, honestly."
"Children invent stories all the time."
Julian ignored her.
He looked carefully at Lily again.
Her gray eyes.
The tiny birthmark beneath her left ear.
Exactly where his mother had one.
Exactly where family photographs showed Eleanor had one too.
Impossible.
Unless...
Forty years earlier, Eleanor Ashcombe had vanished.
The newspapers called it a kidnapping.
The police found nothing.
Months later, she was declared dead.
But Julian suddenly remembered something his father once whispered after too much whiskey.
"They never found Eleanor's body."
Only now did those words strike differently.
If Eleanor survived...
She could have had children.
Grandchildren.
Lily.
"Who raised you?" Julian asked quietly.
"My mommy."
"Until she got sick."
"Then Miss Martha."
Lily pointed toward the elderly homeless woman standing nervously near the entrance.
Julian walked over.
"May I speak with you?"
The woman nodded.
"My name is Martha Evans."
"I promised Rose I'd protect Lily."
"What happened to Rose?"
Martha hesitated.
"She died six months ago."
"Cancer."
"Before she passed..."
"...she gave me this."
From her worn handbag she removed an old envelope.