Hazel's POV
"There is a reason I never spoke of her," Richard said, his voice breaking on the last word. "A reason I convinced myself was good enough for thirty years."
I sat beside Julian on the worn leather couch in Richard's study, the drawing spread carefully on the coffee table between us, the crooked sun staring up at all three of us like a silent witness.
"Start from the beginning," Julian said, his voice tight with a restraint I could tell was costing him everything to maintain. "All of it. No more pieces, Dad. Not this time."
Richard's hands trembled slightly as he reached for the framed photograph on his desk, an old picture I had never paid attention to before, a young woman with dark hair and a guarded smile standing beside a much younger Richard.
"Her name was Celeste," h
