“My mom was counseling Raven’s dad? That doesn’t make sense.” Lily frowned as Jack sat on the edge of the desk, flipping open the file. “She’s not a grief counselor. She’s a marriage counselor who specializes in substance abuse.”

“Look at the dates of his sessions.”

Lily did, silently studying the first few pages. Her mother had kept meticulous notes. She was obnoxiously organized, and Lily had always resented that about her, but at this particular moment, she was grateful for it. “She was counseling him before Raven’s mom died.”

“Yes.”

“Because he was having marital problems, and he thought counseling could help.”

“Apparently.” Jack flipped forward a couple of pages, to the place where an old family photograph was hiding. Raven must’ve been three or four, and he was cheesing it up for the camera while his parents stood behind him. Laughing and holding hands.

“Why would your mother have this?” Jack demanded, plucking the photo from the file. She held it between her fingers, staring at Raven. “Do you think she took it from their house after she moved in?”

“I think she asked him to bring in mementos of a time when he and his first wife were happy,” Lily said. Sometimes, in an emergency, her mother had hosted sessions at their old apartment. If a client needed her in the middle of the night. If they couldn’t make it until the morning. The apartment had been tiny, with paper-thin walls, and even if Lily tried not to listen, she couldn’t help but pick up snippets of conversation. “A lot of the time, when couples are having problems, it helps to remember why they fell in love in the first place,” she explained to Jack. “If they bring in old love letters, and family photos like this, it can awaken something that’s sleeping inside them. As long as that something isn’t dead.”

She’d sounded like her mother just then. A shiver raced up her spine. She didn’t want to be sitting at this desk, spouting these old familiar words as if a ghost were speaking through her. Her mother was gone, and though it hadn’t happened the way she’d planned, the last thing Lily wanted was to resurrect her.

“Copy the file and put it back,” she instructed, striding over to the filing cabinet. If her mother kept a file on Raven’s dad, maybe there were other secrets in these drawers. Maybe there was a file on Lily herself.

But which name would her mother have used?