can't stop thinking about. I thought you were telling me exactly who you were, and I kept remembering someone else."

I moved my hand across the table, then stopped before touching hers.

"You weren't imagining it."

"I know that now."

She took a breath and turned the page.

The next section was older. Its cover bore my father's name and the heading FAMILY ARCHIVE. Below it, typed on a label, was Elena's name.

The first entry was thirty years old.

"That can't be mine," she said.

I opened the section.

Her mother had worked for Caruso Holdings from 1994 to 1997. There was an employment photograph, a young woman with Elena's mouth standing beside a filing cabinet.

"She told me she worked in insurance."

Behind the photograph was another. Clara stood outside our old house holding an infant. Gabriel, my father's younger brother, stood beside her, his hand resting lightly on the baby's blanket.

I remembered that hand tying a fishing hook for me.

He had died when I was ten.

Elena touched the corner of the picture.

"That's me."

I found the internal family record underneath it. The child listed was Elena Voss. Her mother was Clara. In the space identifying the father, someone had typed Gabriel Caruso.

For several seconds, I couldn't hear anything beyond the blood in my ears.

Elena followed my gaze.

"Gabriel was your father's brother."

I nodded once.

From the kitchen came Sophie's laugh.

According to the file on the table, I had fallen in love with my own cousin.