“But he was terrified that if he appeared at the end of your life as a stranger and said, ‘I am the father you thought was dead, and now I am dying,’ your final memories of him would contain only shock and obligation.”

“So instead he deceived me differently.”

“Yes.”

I stared.

“And the ceremony?”

“Julian wrote that he wanted a symbolic promise that he would not die alone.”

“From his daughter.”

Arthur lowered his eyes.