When Arthur could speak again, the words came out of him in a rush, as though they had been dammed up for nine years and the sight of Maya had finally broken the dam.

“Nine years ago I let the business come between us,” he said.

“I let a fight over money and buildings break our whole family apart.

I told myself you were the one who left, that you abandoned the family, and I built a wall around that story and lived behind it.

And when Evelyn disappeared, when she cut us all off, I told myself she wanted nothing to do with us, that it was her choice, and I let her go too.

I never once imagined she was in trouble.