“What good reason is there to not tell me I have a sister?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll never know the answer to that. But, what I do know is that you have a sister. A real, live sister. You’ve always dreamed of having a sibling, and now you do. Don’t screw it up by being angry at your mother.”

She knew Raven was right. She almost always was, although Mia would never tell her that.

“I’ll keep an open mind,” Mia finally said, wiping her hands on a nearby cloth.

“Good. So, what do you know about this mystery woman?”

“I only know her name is Kate, and she should be about thirty-seven years old. Apart from that, I know nothing.”

“You don’t even know where she lives?”

“Nope.”

Raven sat for a moment and then her eyes went wide. “Oh no.”

“What?”

“What if she’s a… northerner?”

Kate parked in front of the building and sat in her car staring at the front door of a nondescript building. How would she ever do this? She’d written off her father, who she now only referred to as Paul, many years ago. She never wanted to need anything from him again, yet here she was, trying to prove a point to her daughter.

She opened her car door and stepped out, the heel of her boot digging into the gravel. Paul had always done work on cars, and it looked like he was still in the same business. The building, in a rougher part of town, was pretty shabby, but she knew he probably made good money. He was just too cheap to fix it up, most likely.

As she walked through the front door and into a small waiting area, she looked around at the wood paneled walls. The place smelled of old cigar smoke and exhaust from the many cars in the bays beyond the glass window. She could see a few men, in dark gray overalls, working on cars, but she didn’t see her father at first.

“Can I help you?” a voice asked from behind her. She didn’t have to turn around to know who that was.

Slowly, she turned, wondering along the way whether he would recognize her all these years later. Would she still look like the elementary schooler he left behind decades ago?

But there was no recollection on his face. He just smiled slightly, as if she was a new customer coming to get an oil change.

“Do you know who I am?” she asked.

“Um, I don’t think so…” he said, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Seriously?”

He stared at her for a long moment before his face changed. The smile vanished, and his jaw clenched. “Kate?” He didn’t say her name like a loving father, but more like she was the villain in a superhero movie.