I sit cross-legged on the floor and stare at the two photos.

“Ally?”

“I’ve never seen these,” I say as I hold up the photo of Dad and his possible family. “He kept these from me.”

He had kept the truth from me. Kept my family from me.

I go back to the wedding photo. Paula is wearing a white lace dress and Dad is in a gray tuxedo. They aren’t looking at the camera because they only have eyes for each other. They are holding hands and laughing.

What happened to them? It’s hard to believe that kind of love can turn sour.

Maybe I am the reason?

Sheriff Gleason comes from behind me and sees the driver’s license with all the scraps of paper. “Oh my God. We’re going to need the contents of that box. This saves us a search warrant.”

These memories are now evidence. Everything has been tainted by this mess.

Sheriff Gleason kneels down next to me. “Are you okay?”

“I really wish people would stop asking me that,” I say angrily. “Sorry.”

I stagger to standing, my head swirling. It’s a combination of everything I just uncovered and the fact that I haven’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours. I go back to the living room and sit in my normal spot on the couch.

Looking around at the place I have called home for eight years, I wonder what’s going to happen to it. Every piece that has been added throughout the years tells a story from my life with Dad. I unsteadily get back up and head over to the shelf above the fireplace that is lined with the Precious Moments figurines that Dad had gotten me for my birthday every year.

I hold a figurine in my hand and trace the outline. It’s of a girl in a blue dress, blowing out a candle on an oversized cupcake. It’s from my first birthday in Valley Falls. We’d only been here a few weeks, but twenty people came over for cake and ice cream, all thanks to the Gleasons.

That night, when he tucked me into bed, Dad told me that we were going to stay put. No more moving every few months. He liked it here. I liked it here. I slept really well and felt so safe that night. So happy.

And it was all a lie.

I take the figurine and throw it across the room. It smashes into pieces.

Sheriff Gleason flinches in shock. “Ally?”

I grab another figurine and hurl it against the wall.

Then another.

And another.

Sheriff Gleason backs away, knowing I need this release.

It feels good. With every sound of shattering porcelain, I feel some of the hatred and betrayal lessen.