The story Everett had believed for a year began falling apart. Piece by piece.
Then Silas called one more time.
"Everett..."
His voice sounded different.
"I found out who logged the request to erase that file."
Everett slowly sat down.
"Who?"
Silas sent one last document.
Everett opened it.
The moment he saw the name typed under Authorized By, it was his own.
To understand how that name got there, you have to go back further. Back to the very beginning.
Everett met Naomi seven years earlier. It happened at a county fair outside Briar Hollow. She sold apple pies from a folding table. He bought four in one afternoon just to talk to her longer. She laughed at him for it. Then she gave him a fifth one for free. "You're going to make yourself sick," she said. "Worth it," he told her.
Naomi grew up on a small farm outside town. Her parents raised chickens and sold eggs at the same fair. She'd been baking pies since she was twelve years old. Her mother taught her the crust recipe first. Then the filling, one summer at a time. By the time she met Everett, she could make one blind.
