The paper trail you provided was simply too clean.” And I took a long, deep breath of the cold night air off the lake, and felt the last threads of a lifetime of tension finally loosen and let go of my shoulders.

Chapter 18 — Pointing Out the Wind

“Do you feel guilty?” Julian asked me, gently, into the cool night air.

I thought about the question, honestly, for a moment.

I thought about the little girl who used to sit at the very end of the long dining table while her parents toasted her brother’s future.

I thought about all the years I had spent quietly fixing Caleb’s accounting errors in secret, letting him take the credit, just to keep a peace that was never really peace.

I thought about the cold, merciless eyes of my mother as she set those surrender papers on my hospital tray.