The Secret

Eliana’s eyes turned dark, and he immediately saw that he had made a mistake. She shook her head as though to dispel the thoughts that had begun to rise within her and faced him again.

“Veronica, as I said, is like the rest of us. I have done many bad things myself, things I am not proud of. There are worse things than abandoning a child, and I’m sure that if I were in her shoes, I would have done far worse than that.” Eliana continued. “Veronica did not care about pleasing people, but she did care about pleasing me. After all, I was her little sister, and I may have given her no choice. I may have pushed her away.”

He has read it now. Perhaps he heard it. The things she would not say. Things she could not bring herself to talk about. Not with him. Not yet.

But he did not fully grasp it. It was hard washing a stain off a once white cloth; it never came off completely.

“When she got pregnant with Sophie, I...” Her voice cracked, and her face slipped. This was the first time she