I almost laughed.
“You’re definitely related.”
He laughed too.
Then he reached into the drawer beside his chair.
“There’s something else.”
He handed me a photograph.
It showed Caroline Kane years earlier.
Beside her stood Daniel.
And beside Daniel stood me.
I stared.
It had been taken at a university design exhibition more than a decade ago.
I remembered the night.
Daniel and I had been dating six months.
A gracious woman had spent twenty minutes talking to me about my student portfolio.
I had never realized who she was.
“Your wife,” I whispered.
William nodded.
“She kept that photograph.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted to offer you a fellowship.”
I looked up sharply.
“What?”
“She wrote your name on the back.”
My fingers trembled as I turned it over.
There it was.
**Julia Bennett — exceptional eye, brave work. Follow up.**
I could barely breathe.
“I never heard from her.”
