He leaned closer, his voice trembling. Then he whispered her grandmother’s full maiden name—clearly, perfectly, the way someone would say it after years of holding it gently in their memory. Elise felt the breath leave her body. No one outside the family ever used that name.
“I didn’t die,” he said softly. “At least, not the way they were told. I was ordered to disappear. I loved her—your grandmother—and I never stopped. Elise, you look so much like her.” The cabin noise faded; her world narrowed to the man sitting inches from her.