Ross’s voice was low, almost too controlled. “Tell me.”

Emma’s fingernails dug into her palms as violently as she could, trying to divert the pain in her heart into physical pain. She swallowed, forcing herself to meet his gaze even though it felt like pressing against a blade. “Liz…I… eloped. That’s what the investigators told your mother. That I had a family, a fiancé, and I left them behind for someone else, an unnamed someone else.”

For the first time since she’d known ...