“He is in hiding,” Julian said. “Your mother found out he was looking into the 1994 records. You need to put those papers back and walk away, Nathan.”

“I am not walking away,” Nathan said.

“The woman on that file,” Julian said, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Clara Miller. Do you know who she is?”

I gasped, the cold basement air hitting the back of my throat.

The name hit me like a physical blow.

“Clara Miller was my mother,” I whispered.

Nathan looked at me, his eyes wide in the dim light of the basement.

“What did you say, Emily?” he asked.

“My mother’s maiden name,” I said, my voice trembling. “It was Clara Miller.”

The phone crackled with static on the speaker.

“Then you know,” Julian said on the other end. “Thomas Carter had a child with her before he married Eleanor. A girl.”

My heart hammered against my ribs.

“That is impossible,” I said. “My mother lived in West Virginia. She died in the house fire.”

“Eleanor paid her to leave Greenwich,” Julian said. “She gave her a lump sum to disappear and never come back. But Thomas never stopped looking for her.”