back.”
I stared at her.
“She knew about the marriage plan?”
“Not the details. But Ethan told her he intended to protect you if the investigation became dangerous.”
Vivian reached into her handbag and removed a folded piece of paper.
“There was one more note.”
My mother’s handwriting covered the outside.
For Vivian.
“I kept it because I did not understand it,” she said.
I opened the note.
Vivian,
Ethan believes he is protecting Clara because she reminds him that good people exist outside the world he knows.
He is mistaken.
He is protecting her because she reminds him of the person he still hopes to become.
Should he ever forget that, please return him to her.
I read the words twice.
Then I looked across the courtyard.
Ethan stood with my father, listening intently as he described plans for a patient transportation fund. Jason was beside them, correcting every
