I can only do, now, the one thing still within my reach, which is to make certain that when I am gone, you are no longer a secret.

That you are named.

That you are, at last and in the open, a Hale — if you should want to be, which I would not blame you for refusing.”

Hollis turned the page.

His hands were trembling more now.

“But there is more,” he read, “and it is the hardest part, and Bennett must hear all of it before he decides anything.

Because the Lake House Trust is not only a gift to my daughter.