Emily’s heart squeezed. “I do.”
Claire exhaled. In the background, a child laughed, then made an engine sound. Noah. Emily pictured a little boy pushing a toy truck across a carpet, unaware of the long shadow his family name cast over two women who had never met.
“I found my mother’s letter,” Emily said. “She knew Linda years ago.”
“I wondered,” Claire replied.
Emily sat straighter. “You wondered?”
“When Ryan saw an old photo once, he reacted strangely. I thought it was just because Linda hated being reminded of the past. But later he said something about the Bennetts. Not your name specifically. Just that Linda had once known a Bennett woman who caused trouble.”
Emily’s fingers tightened around the notebook. “Caused trouble by telling the truth.”
“Usually the same thing to people like Linda.”
A silence opened between them, but it was not empty. It was the silence of two women standing on opposite sides of the same bridge.
