or family photographs.
He looked thinner than I remembered.
He spoke first.
“Emily got it from me.”
“She inherited it from you.”
“I carry the same marker.”
“I know.”
“It killed her, Liv.”
“You didn’t choose what was in your genes. That’s not the same as saying you killed her.”
He looked away.
“What did you hear when your result came back?”
“That whatever was inside Emily had been inside me first.”
“So you decided her death was your fault.”
His silence answered me.
“You left because you thought staying would make everything worse.”
“At first.”
“And after that?”
“Staying gone became easier than admitting I’d destroyed everything.”
“You didn’t destroy everything when you left the house, Carl. You destroyed it every year you chose not to come back.”
He flinched.
“Why did you leave Lily?”
“Every time I looked at her, I saw Emily.”
“That explains your grief. It
