Emily felt a sudden ache.
Her grandmother used to sing a river song while folding laundry.
She had never explained where she learned it.
Chapter 13: The Song Without Words
Arthur listened to Emily describe Grace’s recollection through the speakerphone.
He asked whether she could hum the melody from Lillian’s kitchen.
Emily closed her eyes and tried to remember her grandmother moving between the stove and the sink.
The tune came back in fragments.
It began with three descending notes and returned to the first one after a long pause.
Arthur joined her on the final phrase.
His voice was uncertain but unmistakably following the same melody.
“That was the song Lillian sang during the flood,” he said.
“She taught it to the children.”
Noah suggested that a melody might help locate Caroline if she was alive.
Simon cautioned them against publicizing the photograph before they understood the adoption records.
People who had been separated from relatives as children deserved privacy and control over their stories.
Emily agreed.
She thought about how easily a search for justice could become another intrusion.
At the library, she located a directory of former childcare workers and found Helen Morrow’s last known address.
Helen lived in a small assisted-living residence in New Hampshire.
Her niece answered the phone and said Helen had difficulty remembering recent events but spoke clearly about old ones.
They arranged a visit with the niece present.
Emily requested that Arthur come only if Helen agreed.
Arthur accepted the condition.
On the drive north, Emily watched autumn clouds move above the highway.
Noah drove and asked what she expected to find.
“I hope the truth is smaller than what people are hiding,” she answered.
He said nothing for a moment.
“People don’t build walls around small truths,” he replied.
Chapter 14: Helen Morrow’s Notebook
Helen Morrow greeted Emily from a chair beside a sunlit window.
Her hands were bent by arthritis, but her expression remained sharp.
She remembered Lillian immediately.
“That woman could make a roomful of children obey without ever raising her voice,” Helen said.
Emily showed her the photograph.
Helen identified Caroline and then looked away.
“Did she have family?” Emily asked.
“Yes.”
“Were they found?”
Helen reached for a notebook beside her chair.
Her niece helped her turn the pages.
In the notebook, Helen had recorded the names of children transferred from Meadowbrook and the agencies that handled their placements.
She explained that she began keeping the record when she discovered the official files were incomplete.
