“Then I found the clerk who signed my record. She lives near Lake Maren.”

“What did she tell you?” Pearl whispered.

Nicole folded her arms tight across her chest. “She remembered Mom arriving with June and a newborn. June wanted paperwork so Mom could raise me temporarily. Instead, the clerk helped Mom file a delayed birth certificate naming Mom as my mother. She told herself she was protecting a frightened family.”

Chapter 10 — You Left Me Alone

Anger rose through my grief. “Three trips out there, and you couldn’t drive home once? I bathed Mom. I changed her clothes. I listened when she cried at night. You left me alone with everything, Nicole. Everything difficult and ugly.”
Nicole didn’t defend herself.

“You were caring for her body,” she said quietly. “I was trying to understand why she spent my whole life looking at me as though she expected someone to come back and take me away.”

“Did you find June?” Pearl asked.