anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t stay here, Olivia. I can’t do us.”
Three days later, he left.
I believed he had abandoned me and Lily at the worst moment of our lives.
My father, Nathaniel, stayed.
He helped raise Lily. He was there for birthdays, school events, frightened nights, and all the ordinary moments Carl had missed.
Now I learned Dad had been keeping Carl’s secret.
I opened my envelope.
Inside was a letter and medical paperwork.
After Emily died, doctors had suspected an inherited heart-rhythm condition. Carl had been tested.
He carried the same genetic change.
His letter said:
“They told me she inherited it from me. I heard one thing: mine. It came from me. Emily got it from me.”
I looked at Dad.
“You knew?”
“Eventually.”
“How long?”
“A few weeks after the funeral.”
“So all these years, you knew Carl carried the same genetic
