Now I thought about the baby photograph.
The young Margaret Ellis standing outside the hospital.
The white blanket embroidered with blue flowers.
And something inside me whispered that Mrs. Wilson had been carrying another secret long before Alex arrived.
A secret that had nothing to do with money.
I looked toward Mom's bedroom.
For reasons I couldn't explain, I suddenly wanted to ask her about the year she was born.
But before I could move, a sound came from the front porch.
Three soft knocks.
I froze.
Then a woman's voice called through the door.
“Ruth? It's Agnes.”
My blood turned to ice.
The voice was elderly.
Thin.
Familiar.
And unmistakably real.
The woman everyone believed had been dead for six weeks was standing outside my mother's house.
CHAPTER 6: THE DEAD WOMAN CAME BACK—AND SHE WAS THE ONE WHO HAD BETRAYED THEM ALL
“Ruth, open the door. It's Agnes. I need to explain.”
