searching for you.”
“Why?”
“I thought he wanted to make amends.”
Rose laughed from across the room.
Margaret looked at her.
“I believed that.”
“But?”
Margaret reached into her purse.
She handed me a folded paper.
It was old.
Yellowed.
Typewritten.
Locate female child believed born July 14, 1988.
Adoptive identity unknown.
Confirm location discreetly.
Do not contact.
Below it was a handwritten note.
If found, ensure no claim can ever be made against the estate.
Harold’s initials were beneath it.
I stared at the words.
“He wanted to keep me from inheriting.”
“Yes.”
The irony hit me so hard I almost laughed.
After trying to erase me as a baby, my father had spent years searching for me because he was afraid I might one day take his money.
Margaret sat down.
“When I found those papers, I hired someone else to find you.”
“And then?”
“I learned Helen
