Diane looked at him sadly.
“Because the boy Margaret gave up was placed with my husband’s aunt and uncle,” she said. “The Whitaker family. They raised him for six months before another relative stepped forward to take him permanently.”
Paul’s brow furrowed.
“Wait,” he said. “My aunt Eleanor? The one who moved to Indiana?”
Diane nodded.
“She took the baby?”
“For a little while,” Diane said. “Then there was another transfer. The paperwork was sealed.”
My mother looked lost. “I never knew.”
“Noah kept digging,” Diane continued. “He thought maybe there was a family connection between him and Emma. He was afraid he and Emma might be too closely related.”
My breath caught.
For one dizzy second, the room blurred.
My hand tightened around Leo’s shoulder.
Diane saw the fear on my face and stood quickly.
“No,” she said firmly. “No, sweetheart. He checked enough to know that wasn’t true. Noah was not your brother. He was not your cousin by blood. That’s not the secret.”
