muffled against my shirt.
“No, Grandpa.”
Calvin came down the stairs behind Melissa.
“What happened?”
I looked at him.
“Ava says Melissa isn’t her mother.”
He stared at the child.
Then at Melissa.
A strange expression crossed his face.
Not disbelief.
Recognition.
I stood slowly.
“You know something.”
“No.”
“That look says otherwise.”
“Thomas—”
“What do you know?”
Melissa turned toward Calvin.
“You told me she was too young to remember me.”
“She was.”
Ava lifted her head.
“I remember my mommy.”
Melissa took a cautious step forward.
“Ava, sweetheart—”
“Don’t call me that!”
The child’s scream broke my heart.
Melissa stopped.
Tears filled her eyes.
I lowered myself beside Ava again.
“What do you remember?”
She looked at Calvin first.
That frightened me.
“Ava,” I said gently, “you can tell me anything.”
She swallowed.
“My mommy had a little moon mark.”
“A what?”
“Here.”
She touched the left
