Claire looked at Kate.
Kate answered.
“She died a long time ago.”
Ellie frowned.
“Like Grandpa?”
“Yes.”
“And Grandma Emily?”
Claire’s own mother, Emily, had died before Ellie was born.
“Yes.”
Ellie looked at the photograph again.
“Can I put her in my family tree?”
Kate covered her mouth.
Luke turned away.
Claire smiled.
“I think Aunt Kate would like that.”
Ellie ran upstairs for markers.
Kate began crying.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just tears sliding down her face while she stared at the photograph Diane had spent years treating like dangerous evidence.
“She said remembering would keep me sick.”
Claire took her hand.
“No.”
Kate nodded.
“I know that now.”
The family tree appeared on Ellie’s bedroom wall three days later.
Parents.
Grandparents.
Aunts.
Uncles.
Cousins.
Lucy.
When Diane eventually learned about it, she sent Luke one message.
THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE.
He deleted it.
Months passed.
Luke started a new company.
Small at first.
Commercial renovation instead of large-scale development.
He called it Ward & Bennett because his first partner, Marcus Ward, refused to let Luke put his own name first.
They rented a cramped office above an insurance agency.
Luke assembled furniture himself.
Claire laughed when she saw him attempting to install shelving.
“You built hospitals.”
“I supervised people building hospitals.”
“That explains this.”
The shelf leaned badly.
They kept it that way for almost a year.
Andrew remained at Bennett Construction.
For a while, that created distance between the brothers.
Then Diane began focusing on him.
Small criticisms.
Schedule changes.
Questions about his wife’s spending.
Comments about his oldest son’s grades.
Requests that became expectations.
Expectations that became orders.
Six months after Luke resigned, Andrew arrived at his house at 11 p.m.
Luke opened the door.
His brother looked exhausted.
“Can I stay here?”
Luke did not ask why.
He stepped aside.
Andrew slept on their couch.
The next morning, he explained.
Diane had screamed at his sixteen-year-old son, Caleb, for refusing to attend a family charity dinner.
When Caleb said he already had plans with friends, Diane called him ungrateful.
Andrew finally told her to stop.
She threatened his position at the company.