Esther kept turning the pages until she reached the end of the album. When she finally closed it, she realized something odd. Except for the first page, there were no photos of Gaara’s father anywhere. The entire album was filled only with pictures of Gaara alone or with his mother.

There was another detail that struck her as strange, but she decided it wasn’t her place to ask. So she swallowed the question and kept it to herself.

Gaara allowed her to open the next album. It wasn’t much ...