On the sofa in the living room, Dallas flipped through Katie’s notes, impressed by the comprehensive search she’d conducted. She’d traced the family history backward from their father. “There are,” she counted, “seventy-three names within our family tree.”
“Did you know great-great grand pappy Nathaniel Charles Hall was born in 1588?”
Noah shoved his blue chambray shirt under the waistband of his jeans. “No. I didn’t know.”
“I would have been surprised if you had.” She giggled and continued reading, aware Noah’s gaze centered on her face.
“Shouldn’t we be on our way?”
“Uh-huh. In just a sec….”
“What’s gotten into you?” he asked. “You never showed the least interest in genealogy before.”
She couldn’t explain the sudden desire to know about her ancestors. “Maybe it makes me feel close to Katie.” She ran her finger over Katie’s precise handwriting.
“She never hurried at anything she did. The floor could have been on fire beneath her feet and still she would have moved at the same pace.” She smiled. For the first time since Katie’s death, memories of her didn’t make her cry. In fact, thinking about it, she felt tranquil, totally, utterly at peace.
Noah sat beside her and draped an arm around the top edge of the sofa. “We can always call Abbott and cancel. Stay home. You can read up on your ancestors and I can watch sports on TSN.”
That was her Noah. Always making the best of any situation. “No, we’ll go. I’m anxious to see Abbott’s expression when I tell him I’m Katie’s sister. I know he already knows that, but he’s never seen me face to face.” She gathered the papers together in a neat bundle and shoved them into the bellows file.
“You dropped a sheet.” Noah picked the piece of paper from the floor and handed it to her.
Her intention was to stuff the page with the rest of them for later scrutiny, but Abbott Fenwick’s name stopped her cold. She read what Katie had written and finally understood why his name was Katie’s dying words.
“Oh my God,” she said, unable to remove her eyes from the notation below Abbott’s name. It couldn’t be true. Katie made a mistake, but as much as she would like to believe it, she knew her sister would have triple-checked every fact and not come to any unfounded conclusions.
“What is it, hon?” Noah asked.
The urgency in his voice made her look at him. She pointed to the page. “Read that. We have to go to the party now. We don’t have a choice. I won’t rest one minute until I confront her.”