“Because someday, Lily needs to receive exactly what her mother intended for her to have.

Uncompromised.”

Six months later, on a crisp spring afternoon, Marcus drove Lily and Evelyn up to the estate on Martha’s Vineyard.

He opened the wooden shutters and let the bright Atlantic light flood the hardwood floors, and Lily ran straight out onto the back deck overlooking the ocean, her hair blowing in the sea breeze.

Inside, unwrapping the furniture, Marcus found an old sketchbook of Hannah’s in a drawer, and a moment later Lily came running back holding a framed photograph she had found, of Marcus and Hannah, years ago, sitting on this very deck.

“Mommy was here, wasn’t she?” Lily asked softly.