“I found the trust documents.”
Silence.
Then Margaret spoke slowly.
“Give them to me.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand what you’ve done.”
“I understand that you lied to me about my mother and father.”
Margaret’s voice softened.
“I raised you. I sacrificed everything to give you a future.”
“And you concealed my identity.”
“I protected you.”
“From the truth?”
“From people who would use it against you.”
Victoria ended the call.
She looked at Emily.
“My mother knows we’ve found the original deed.”
Emily closed the box.
“Then we should assume she knows everything else, too.”
As they left the archive, a man approached Alexander and handed him a sealed envelope.
“There was a woman waiting outside,” he said. “She asked me to give you this.”
“Who was she?”
“I don’t know.”
Alexander opened the envelope.
Inside was a recent photograph of an elderly woman standing outside a small cottage.
On the back were five words.
ELEANOR CARTER IS STILL ALIVE.
