“Did Julian know the truth when he was growing up?” I asked.

“He was five when she erased me,” Marcus said.

He reached into his coat pocket, took out a silver pocket watch, and set it quietly on the white sheet near my knee.

“I left this on the entry table the night her attorney served the restraining order.”

I looked down at the heavy silver case, engraved on the back with 1991 and the Vance Trust initials.

“Eleanor told him I died in a highway crash near Wheeling,” Marcus said, rubbing his thumb over the scratched glass of the watch.