Joanna rubbed her hand. “Don’t. However emotional and difficult this is, let’s not lose sight of the truth here. The whole thing was a mess, but the one person who was blameless was you.”

“And you.” Ashley’s throat felt tight. “You were blameless, too. I should have told you the truth about being his daughter right away. I wanted to. Not saying anything has been making me feel sick. And I hate myself for not doing it sooner.”

“I’ve avoided the conversation, too. Don’t feel bad. I can see it was a horribly difficult thing to tell me. That’s why you’ve not been eating?” Joanna frowned. “Can I fetch you something now?”

“I couldn’t eat. I just want us to talk. I want you to tell me everything. I don’t want us to have secrets. Don’t keep anything back from me, however bad it is. You haven’t told me how you found out I existed.”

“It was about a year ago. I overheard a phone call. Cliff was in his study and he left the door open, something he never did. He was talking to someone.” Joanna paused, remembering. “Shouting, not talking. He yelled, I told you never to call me, and I couldn’t hear what she said—I assumed it was a woman—but whatever it was made him even more angry. I was still outside the door, but I would have heard him from almost anywhere in the house. He said, I can’t help, and it’s no good begging. It’s not my responsibility. You can’t do this to me now. He was furious, and...scared. I watched him through the crack in the door, and his face was red and he was sweating and I knew for sure that whatever it was they were talking about it definitely was his responsibility and he knew it.”

Ashley’s heart was pounding. “A year ago?” That would have been just after her mother had gotten sick. Just before she’d been taken into the hospital. And she remembered that call, because she remembered the words. She’d heard the other side of the conversation. The words Joanna wouldn’t have heard. The words Cliff had been responding to. She remembered the tone as much as the content of the conversation. Her mother wasn’t an emotional person. She never lost control, and yet she’d lost control that day. You have to help. I’m begging you. And Ashley had sat there frozen with shock, witnessing a side of her mother she’d never seen before. She’d wondered who she was talking to and how anyone could refuse to help someone who was so obviously desperate.

And now she knew.