“That’s right, dear—that’s when I gave you away.”

“What?”

“I loved you, of course—more than you’ll ever know. But I wanted something better for you, and I knew I couldn’t give it to you. I was dirt poor, you see, and I was raising a baby all by myself. I know it’s hard to believe now, but I was a pretty little thing back then—I had all kinds of boys sniffing around my door. There were two of them in particular— well, I just couldn’t choose between them. And when I told them I was in a family way, they both ran for the hills. I can’t really blame them; they were just boys. But that left me to raise you by myself, and—”

“Wait a minute. I know all about my birth parents—they were killed in a car crash.”

“That’s the story I made up—that’s the story I told your new parents.”

Victoria began to turn the pages of the scrapbook. On the next page she found a birth certificate; the date of birth was the same as hers, but the name was different.

“Beulah Deluca?”

“I named you after your grandmother—isn’t it lovely? But your new parents liked ‘Victoria’ better, and I suppose it’s done you just fine.”

On the next page was a baptismal certificate and a lock of delicate hair tied with a pink ribbon. The following page contained a single sheet of paper—it seemed to be some kind of genealogical chart.

“I’ve seen this before,” Victoria said. “This is my family tree.”

“I’m very proud of that,” Agnes said. “It took months to make it all up.”

“You—made it up?”

“See, I wanted to find you a good family—but to find you a good family you needed to come from a good family, and mine just wouldn’t do. I’m a librarian, sweetheart—I just looked up some old Virginia families and dropped you into one. That way you got a good start and a good finish. What more can a mother give her little girl?”

Victoria turned the page—there were her adoption papers. She looked at the bottom and recognized her parents’ signatures. “You’re listed here as my foster parent.”

“What else could I tell them? I don’t exactly fit in that fine family tree. I told them your real parents died in a car crash, and I guess that’s what they told you. Didn’t that work out nice?”