Chapter 3

The kitchen clock ticked.

The bracelet lay by Diane's plate like a coin.

Diane did what she always did.

She stood up.

She straightened her skirt.

She took the room back with both hands.

"I drove her in," she said.

"Renee was sick that whole fall."

"I signed the desk sheet."

"Nobody here knows what that means."

Cody half-rose from his chair.

"Ma," he said.

"Is that-"

"Sit down," Diane said.

He sat down.

Ruth's eyes stayed on the bracelet.

Then Josie reached into her coat.

She pulled out the report.

Three pages, folded soft at the crease.

She opened them on the tablecloth.

She turned to the second page.

"There's a match," she said.

"Top of my list."

Her finger went to the line.

"First-degree relative."

"Maternal."

She looked up at Diane.

"Two Christmases ago, Cody gave you a DNA kit," she said.

"You mailed it in for fun."

Ruth's hand went to her mouth.

Cody's face went slack.

Diane's chair scraped back on the floorboards.

"Get out," she said.

"Get out of this house."

She pointed at Josie.

"You're done here."

She pointed at Ray.

"You're off the press by morning."

"I'll call the sheriff myself."

Josie didn't move.

She was doing the math.

Diane had put her on the mill payroll at sixteen.

At the lowest line on the sheet.

She'd posted her to closing shifts the week of finals.

Two springs running.

She'd told the church Josie was a cousin's child they took in.

She'd told the school Josie was a ward.

She'd signed Josie's college papers as guardian, not parent, so the aid would die.

And she'd told the whole town Josie had no claim to anything.

Now Josie knew why.

Ruth stood up.

She was seventy-eight and she stood up faster than she had in years.

"Diane," she said.

"Is it true?"

Diane said nothing.

Her rings clicked against her glass.

"Look at me," Ruth said.

"Is it true?"

Diane's chin came up.

Then it went down.

From the kitchen doorway, Peg Sutter spoke for the first time.

Nobody had noticed her still standing there.

She'd watched the whole thing with a dish towel in her hands.

"There's a second copy of the will in the old safe," she said.

"You know there is, Diane."