To be delivered to Freya only if the family forgets why she was brought into our lives. I turned that condition over and over, because it told me something about Alistair’s hope, and about his despair.

The condition meant that Alistair had wanted, more than anything, for the envelope never to be opened.

He had brought me into his family for some reason connected to my father, and he had hoped — the phrasing made this unmistakable — that the family would remember that reason, honor it, and make the envelope unnecessary.

The letter was a failsafe, not a plan.

It was to be delivered only if things went wrong, only if the Abernathys forgot whatever obligation or truth or debt my presence was meant to embody, only if the good in them lost to the rot.