Evelyn touched the edge of the letter.
“Walter handled some of the papers.”
Walter.
Daniel’s father.
Silas’s grandfather.
He had died three years earlier after a short illness. Until that moment, everything Silas had heard about him had been simple: Walter had loved fishing, arrived early for every appointment, and believed a tool should always be returned to the drawer where it belonged.
Now his name seemed to belong to a different person.
“What did Grandpa do?” Silas asked.
Evelyn shook her head slowly.
“I don’t know.”
“You said he handled the papers.”
“He liked to help.”
Daniel gave a tired, humorless laugh.
“Dad liked to decide.”
Evelyn looked at him sharply.
“He believed he was protecting this family.”
“From Elena?”
“From uncertainty.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” she admitted. “But he did not always understand the difference.”
Denise Porter remained near the doorway, giving the family room to speak while quietly observing every change in Silas’s expression.
