“No.”
The word came out harsher than I intended.
“I didn’t fall into the river.”
Thirty years.
Thirty birthdays.
Thirty years of believing she was dead.
“She just left?”
***
Ashley sat down in the grass beside me without asking. We were both watching the screen.
“I found this three months after Mom died,” Ashley said.
Thirty years of believing she was dead.
I hit play again. “If you’re seeing it, then Ashley found you. And if Ashley found you, then she’s the brave one, because I never was.” Lily smiled at the camera, and it broke something open in me. “I need to tell you the truth. I should have told you thirty years ago. I should have told you every year since. I kept running out of courage.”
The video ended.
For a long time, neither of us spoke.
