Claire had raised Tara under another name. Before Claire died, she confessed everything in a letter: Grant had wanted out of our marriage, wanted Claire, and wanted Tara too—but he did not want to look like the man who abandoned his wife and child overseas.

“He chose himself,” Tara said.

And with those three words, my whole past finally made sense.

Part 3

That night, Grant had a public event for his new book, The Daughter I Lost in Cairo. Tara showed me the poster on her phone, her voice cold.

“He made money from missing me.”

“No,” I said. “He made money from hiding you.”

Before the event, we went to Grant’s house. When he opened the door and saw Tara, all the color drained from his face.

“Tara,” he whispered.

“You remember my name,” she said. “That’s more than I expected.”

Grant tried to explain, but I stopped him. “You are done deciding what we get to hear.”