No matter what trick I tried—and I admittedly shamelessly tried most contained within my limited arsenal—Sterling refused to share more of my past. He promised he would but not until I was ready. The reality was that I knew more about myself than I had a day ago, much more than a week ago. He didn't answer if my biological father was alive, and yet he discussed him in the past tense. While I wanted to rip the Band-Aid from my past, I had to concede that maybe Sterling was right: too much would be overwhelming. Not that Sterling Sparrow wasn't overwhelming in and of himself. I decided that if once we arrived in Chicago, the man I was with at the cabin was going to disappear, while we had the chance, I wanted as much of him as I could get. So while he didn't share more secrets regarding

