Colleen sat cross-legged, her hands wrapped around a cold water bottle, her heart hammering. She didn’t have a good feeling about this discussion. Some things were best left alone. Their dad was erratic now—sometimes fully Gavin and sometimes a man or young child they’d never met. He sang the lark song, humming or under his breath, all during the day. Something buried was pushing against the ground, forcing its way to the surface—a Lazarus of memory.

“I have never lied to you.” Gavin’s voice was strong. He seemed himself.

“I know.” Hallie lowered her voice and wrapped her arms tighter around her knees. “But you haven’t told us the truth about your time in Ireland.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, my darling.” He crossed one leg over the other and furrowed his brow.

“We want to know the full story. We love you and we want to know everything before you . . .”

“Before I forget,” he said clearly. He removed his sunglasses so they all saw the tears that gathered in his eyes and didn’t so much spill as seep into the wrinkles. “Oh, my children. I didn’t mean to lie to you. Sometimes when we honor someone’s request it hurts another. I never meant for such a thing.”

“Then tell us,” Shane said.

“If I tell you this story, I will betray your mother.”

Colleen’s pulse battered against her chest; the sun suddenly felt blazing and dizzying. Don’t, Dad, she wanted to scream. Don’t change everything. But she didn’t speak a word.

“Dad?” Shane asked.

Gavin’s gaze moved slowly to his son’s gaze. “Oh, son. I’m going to lose this piece of myself, aren’t I? Soon it will be gone and you will be feeding me with a spoon and I won’t know your name, will I? That is now my destiny. So I have a choice, don’t I? I can keep the story and allow it to be eaten alive by the disease or I can give it to you. Is giving it to all of you fair to you or to your mother?”

“Dad . . .” Colleen didn’t think the words before she spoke them. “Your story is our story. Can’t you see that?”

He held her gaze and then he said, “Perhaps you’re right.”