After our parents died, I raised my younger brother as my own—but on his 18th birthday, he gave me Mom’s old jewelry box and said, “There’s something she never wanted you to know.”

coming.

“I know what I know,”

“Auntie,” he said, “I think you should go.”

She blinked, genuinely startled.

“Excuse me?”

“I said I think you should go. It’s my birthday. This isn’t the time.”

She recovered quickly, forcing a laugh.

“Well. Clearly your sibling has poisoned you against me. But we’ll talk about this soon, Lucas. Very soon. There are papers to continue reading …