moved over her face.

One blue eye.

One dark eye.

Then her cleft chin.

Suddenly, all the color disappeared from his face.

“Grandpa?”

His hands began shaking.

“Emily…”

His voice sounded wrong.

“Who is her father?”

I laughed nervously.

“You know who her father is.”

Grandpa stared at me.

“Caleb.”

The instant I said the name, something changed in him.

“And Caleb’s father?”

“What?”

“His father’s name.”

I frowned.

“William, I think.”

Grandpa slowly lowered himself back into his chair.

He pressed his lips against Nora’s forehead.

Then he whispered,

“No.”

“Grandpa, you’re frightening me.”

His eyes filled with tears.

“I promised your mother I would never tell you.”

My entire body stiffened.

“Tell me what?”

“Sarah made me swear.”

“Swear what?”

He looked away toward the trees.

“That you would grow up with that  family nowhere near you.”

I sat down on the porch step because my knees suddenly