“So, I’ve kept that promise ever since,” said Rachel as she concluded her story. “And while it didn’t kill my father, I’m convinced that by my not telling him, it ended up killing her instead.”

Frankel had held on to Rachel’s hand for the entire gut-wrenching tale.

He didn’t know which of the Grants he felt sorriest for—the woman who had taken her secret to her grave, her husband who still grieved every single day, or the girl he had hopelessly fallen in love with.

Frankel realized that the answer was all three of them.

“Your mother had already been given a terminal cancer diagnosis. She was going to pass away one way or another.”

“I understand that.” Rachel nodded. “But it happened so much sooner than necessary.”

“How do you figure that?”

“She started withering away immediately. The doctors wanted to enroll her in all these trials and test studies, but my mom refused treatment, despite how much me or my father would plead with her. She’d just say she was in too much pain and wanted to be left in peace.”

Rachel let go of Frankel’s hand and pointed to her chest.

“But I’m certain that she willed herself to die quicker for fear my father would somehow find out about what happened that day.”

“You can’t know that.”

“But I do,” Rachel said. “She said as much the one time I dared to bring it up. I was alone with her in an examining room and I said not telling my father the truth was literally letting the cancer eat away that much quicker.”

She glanced out the window where it had begun to snow again. From her tortured look, Frankel imagined Rachel was reliving that moment.

“She made me promise again to not breathe a word to my father. I reluctantly agreed but said that shouldn’t stop her from telling my dad the truth.”

Rachel turned back toward him.

“She gave me the saddest smile I’d ever seen and said it was a choice she had to live with.”

She shook her head.

“She was gone only a few days later.”

“No wonder there’s been all this tension between you and your father.”

“When she was still alive, I could barely bring myself to be in the same room with him. I was so worried I’d say or do something that would break my promise. And as it got worse, I found myself spending more time back in New York and at the end I was forbidden to come back and even see her—which I now feel completely shitty about.”

“She didn’t leave you much choice.” Frankel took a beat. “And you have no idea who the man was who did this to her?”