"I think so." I blew out a breath, shaking my head in bemusement. "I can't believe my mom has a twin that she never talked about. Apparently, they'd meet every few months when my mother took us to the museum, but it wasn't safe for them to be together."

"Perhaps Rachel is the person your mom met with in New Orleans."

I started at that suggestion. "She had to be. That makes sense."

"Did she say anything about your biological father?"

"Only that he was allegedly a terrible person, and my mom didn't want anyone to know who he was. Rachel warned me not to go digging into that secret. She was extremely agitated at the thought of me trying to find him." I paused. "Which makes me wonder if he's the guy at the center of all this now. He could even be a cop, which makes them reluctant to trust the police."

"Do you think your father knows about Rachel?" Kade asked.

"I doubt it. I think my mom left him in the dark about her past. But if he hadn't run away, we could ask him." I frowned. "Every single one of them is good at running, aren't they? No one wants to stay and face the music."

"Except you, Brynn."

"Which makes me brave or stupid; I don't know which."

"Let's go with brave."

I smiled. "I would prefer that."

Kade glanced down at his phone. "I just got the police report from Jeremy. It looks like a sizable file. I need to get back to the house and download this on my computer."

"I'm ready to go," I said, taking one last bite of the cinnamon bun before following him out of the café.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I drove my car back to the house while Kade followed on his motorcycle. He pulled into the driveway, and I parked behind his truck. Kade grabbed his computer from his apartment and then we went into my mom's house, setting up in the family room.

As Kade downloaded the file, his movements were jerky, and he appeared to be very tense.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked.

"Yes. You're risking your life to get the truth about your mother; I'm just opening a file."

"You're opening a window to the past. It's not just a file."

"I doubt it will tell me that much. I already know that no one was charged with my father's death, and Jeremy said there's no bombshell clue in here."

"That's true." As Kade settled in, I said, "I need to call Dani and fill her in on our aunt. I'll do it upstairs."

"Okay," he said distractedly, his gaze on the computer screen.

I moved up the stairs to my mother's bedroom. I sat down in the middle of the bed and called Dani. "Are you sitting down?" I asked.

"Why? What's happened now?"

"A couple of things."