“Have you been keeping it a secret from them?” Dad asked, smiling at me. “I know I kept it a secret from everyone for as long as I could remember.”
“Dad, what are you talking about?” Elma asked a bit worriedly.
“Alice? Do you know something that we don’t?” Mom looked at me. She was confused, I could tell, but I was even more perplexed. How in the world did Dad know? What connection did he have to any of this?
“Not that I’m admitting anything, but how do you know?” I asked, carefully measuring each word before I uttered it.
“A father knows,” he said. “I may have been gone, but I never stopped looking over you. All of you. My … how can I put it … disposition made it impossible for me to come back, but I was still keeping tabs as best as I could,” he said.
“Briar, what is the meaning of
