“Two hours away,” Justin said.
“I’m in Minnesota too,” I told Daniel. “I’m in Minneapolis.”
“Can we meet?” he asked.
“When?”
“As soon as you can. I could even do today.”
I moved the phone away from my mouth. “He wants to meet me. Today.”
Maddy was already getting up.
“Can I bring my boyfriend and my best friend?” I asked.
“Of course. I’ll have my wife, Alexis, with me.”
We exchanged information, and half an hour later we were on our way.
I felt like I was in some weird fever dream.
On the car ride down, I tried to repeat everything Daniel had said. My mind kept folding around this new information, and I grappled for any explanation to justify why she’d do this. Maybe they were horrible people. Maybe my grandparents were abusive. Maybe she was trying to protect me, and that’s why she never told me.
As awful as it sounded, I wanted this to be true. But if it was true, if they were bad people, why leave Daniel there? Why visit them?
I couldn’t think my way out of it.
Justin drove in silence most of the way, and Maddy didn’t urge me to talk. Like they both knew I was overwhelmed and if they pushed me I’d get small.
My survival instinct wanted me to run. It wanted me to shrink and withdraw and never talk about this again. But something told me I needed to find out the truth.
The town we arrived in was picturesque. There were redbrick buildings with hanging flower baskets on the lampposts and ice cream and fudge shops on the main street and signs in the windows of the cafe and the family-run grocery store for a pumpkin-carving contest in October. All I could think was, this didn’t look like a bad place to grow up. This didn’t look like a place I needed saving from.
We pulled up to an old green Victorian with a wraparound porch decorated with pots of mums.
Justin put the car in park, and I stared out the windshield at the house.
“So this is where Daniel grew up?” Maddy asked. She was thinking the same thing I was, that this place didn’t look like something to hide.
We got out of the car, and a man and woman came out the front door. She had shoulder-length red hair and was holding a baby. I knew my brother on sight because he looked exactly like me. He looked like our mother.
We both paused, staring at each other in disbelief. Like neither of us believed this could be real.
His wife must have sensed his paralysis because she stepped in. “Emma, I’m Alexis, Daniel’s wife. This is our daughter, Victoria. Your niece.”
The word “niece” made a lump bolt to my throat.
Maddy stepped around me. “I’m Maddy, and this is Justin.”
Justin blinked at Alexis. “I know you. You’re Briana’s friend.” Alexis seemed to remember him as soon as he said it. “Yes. It’s good to see you again.”
Daniel and I just stared at each other. Like we were looking at a strange mirror. Even with different fathers it didn’t matter. We were both offshoots of Amber.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” I said. “I’m…”
Daniel snapped out of his daze. “Let’s go inside. We can talk in there.”
We came into the house and I peered around. I’d never been there, but there was something familiar about it anyway. Like maybe I’d seen bits and pieces of it through Mom, even though I didn’t know what I’d been seeing.
Roses.
The house was full of roses. My brother had them tattooed on his arms. The stained-glass window on the landing was framed in red roses. A little girl in a pink dress took up the center of the design, holding a dragonfly on her palm. Roses were carved into the banister.
This is where Mom got the idea for her mural at Neil’s.
“This is the family house,” Daniel said. “It goes back six generations. Our great-great-great-grandfather built it. Our grandparents left it to Amber, actually.”
My head whipped to look at him. “Her parents left her a house?”
“Yeah. I ran it as a B and B for her for almost six years. I bought it from her three years ago.”
“You bought it from her,” I deadpanned. She’d had property? “How much did you buy it for?” I asked.
“Five hundred thousand.”
I blanched. “A half a million dollars…” I breathed.
