“The clothes.”
“Everything I was about to experience with them.”
He swallowed.
“And I kept thinking about the daughter I never watched grow up.”
“So you contacted Isla.”
“I had to.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You chose to.”
He looked at me.
“And then you chose to hide her.”
“I didn’t know how to bring seventeen years of lies into our house.”
“There is only one way.”
“How?”
“You tell the truth.”
Silence.
Finally, Ethan asked:
“What happens now?”
I answered immediately.
“Bring Isla here tomorrow.”
His head lifted.
“Nora…”
“Nothing between you and me is forgiven.”
I held up a hand.
“But I cannot call myself a mother while a seventeen-year-old girl who just lost hers is being hidden by her father and handed photographs of her brothers instead of being allowed to know them.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure Isla will not be punished for decisions you made.”
