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Abby sat down on the floor and crossed her legs So her attention In 1943, Elijah came home, just ten months before Iris had been born Iris Abby picked up the picture of Edith and the baby hidden with the stash under the floor The possibility hit her square in the chest Good God, had Iris been Kristian’s daughter and not Elijah’s? It would explain so much And if Elijah had known …
Toers “This is dated February of ’43, and judging by the tone of the letter, it sounds like Edith’s affair with this Kristian was already ending Edith wouldn’t have been pregnant with Iris yet, not if Iris was born in 1944 That is what you were thinking, right?”
She nodded, souess I let the romantic mystery of it all sweep me away”
“Oh, I don’t know” His shtly crooked “This seems pretty crazy toIn a place like this, faiven, aren’t they?”
She smiled back, somehow relieved that the dates didn’t add up
“Why don’t you read the letters in the garden? It’s waret you out of the fumes”
“Oh, right You’re starting the painting today” She tucked the box under her arm and pushed herself to her feet “And I’ve kept you from it”
“I don’tThere’s a lot of history in these old houses, but ets lost I still don’t kno you knew to look here, though Heck of a hunch”
“I alking around, thinking about how to furnish this room, and the board creaked It kind of felt like there was … I don’t know, no support under it” She s she was a terrible liar “What can I say? I read a lot as a kid I used to dreaination all the time”
She hoped she’d sounded convincing Because ad she’d followed Edith up the stairs and into the nursery before she disappeared would not exactly make Abby the picture of perfect mental health
Toot to his feet “Well, I’d better get to it I’ll get to that switch today, too Don’t want you to always be in the dark”
“Thanks, Tos were back to seht While Tom was crazy-attractive and kissed like a devil, she knew deep down that their attraction could only end in heartbreak … for her Even if To for a relationship Relationships were messy, with emotions involved and the potential to be hurt at the end And this would end She wanted to find out about her fa up for sale She had no reason to keep it
Tom replaced the floorboard as Abby went downstairs andof his ha away the secret compartment, now empty
She sat in the garden ale of shrubs and rosebushes and sipped her tea Looking down at the box in her hands, Abby couldn’t ier contents of the box would take too h
She picked up the letters and untied the faded ribbon holding theether The paper was thin but the words were easily discerned As Abby read the stack, there was no doubt in heran affair Each letter was filled with love and tenderness, and the ehtly like a voyeur, peeking into private moments