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I pull another photograph from the folder as Emma considers that.

“I think she’s right. Whoever sent it chose that picture for a reason. There must be something in it they wanted you to recognize.”

My gaze shifts to the folders spread across the desk. “Then Haven House is where I start.”

We stay on the phone while I work through the rest of the box. Emma asks about names scribbled in notebook margins, addresses circled on old maps, and shelters I’d almost forgotten visiting during the missing years.

Each question sends me back through another memory until the photographs stop looking like records of jobs I’d finished and start looking like pieces of Celeste’s life I’d walked past without realizing how much they mattered.

The conversation eases onto work after that. Emma tells me Raj spent half the day explaining why the product launch succeeded because of him, and I picture Theo encouraging every word simply to watch the rest of the office suffer.

“He actually went along with it?” I ask.

Emma laughs. “By lunch people were thanking him for saving the company.”

I rub a hand across my jaw. “I’m surrounded by children.”

She laughs again, and the sound pulls me farther away from the files covering my desk than anything has all evening.

We move on to Sprout stealing another sock, Babs announcing dinosaurs deserve their own holiday, and Lena trying to work out why Emma kept smiling every time her phone buzzed.

By the time I glance at the clock, nearly two hours have slipped away without either of us noticing.

“You should get some sleep,” Emma says.

I gather the photographs into a neat pile, leaving Celeste’s picture on top. “I’ll try.”

“Those answers will still be waiting tomorrow.”

I look down at the smiling faces in the photograph and nod even though she can’t see me. “Thanks for calling.”

“Anytime.”

After the call ends, I set my phone beside the coffee mug and study the photograph again.

Earlier today I saw strangers standing beside my wife. Tonight I see people who knew a part of her story.

And now, I’m going to start figuring out Haven House.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Emma

APRIL 26TH

Sprout tears across the path before the rest of the Wolf family reaches the Central Park entrance, dragging his red leash behind him as I shove my phone into my coat pocket and brace for impact.

His front paws hit my chest hard enough to push me back a step, and I catch him beneath his shoulders before he can knock me into a woman steering a stroller past us.

His tail clips the wheel as he stretches toward my face, and I twist away from his tongue with an apologetic smile for the woman.

“I’m pleased to see you too,” I tell him as he wriggles against me. “Although most people manage a greeting without committing assault.”

“Sprout!”

Babs races toward us with Biddy close behind, both girls carrying kite reels against their bright jackets. Bane follows with a canvas bag over one shoulder, his attention moving from the loose leash to the dog trying to climb into my arms.

Mara walks beside him in dark sunglasses, carrying another bag and making no attempt to hide the curve of her smile.