The silence in the room was very heavy.

“When you were born,” Harvey went on, “Walter held you for an hour and cried. He said you’d change the history of this family. But Gregory wanted a son.

And when Melanie came along three years later, he decided she was the daughter he’d be proud of.”

“But Melanie wasn’t a son either,” I said.

“It didn’t matter. Gregory always believed Melanie should have been born first. And he blamed you for taking her place.”

I couldn’t get a full breath.