great-recipes.grastyup.com “My uncle once asked me, ‘Are you a virgin?’ when I was already 27 years old. From that moment, I started to be afraid of him. And a few days later, when he took me to a hotel outside the city, he leaned close to my ear by the pool and whispered, ‘After the pool, come up to my room…’”

Richard lowered his eyes.

“Your father had a younger sister.”

I frowned.

“No, he didn’t. I’ve seen all the family photographs. I’ve heard all the stories.”

“That’s because your grandfather made everyone stop talking about her.”

“Why?”

Richard swallowed hard.

“Her name was Anna. She was your father’s younger sister, and she disappeared when she was twenty-two.”

I stared at him.

“What does that have to do with me?”

He reached into the envelope again and handed me a photograph.

It showed a young woman standing beside my mother. The woman had dark hair, a familiar smile, and eyes that looked strangely like mine.

On the back, someone had written a date from nearly thirty years earlier.

And beneath it were four words.

Anna and her daughter, Emily.

I felt the room tilt.

“That’s impossible.”

Richard didn’t answer.

I looked from the photograph to the letter, then back at him.