THE FOLLOWING MORNING, LAURA, DYLAN AND EMMA DROVE back to the Solomons’ house on Serene Lake. Things had changed overnight. They were more of a threesome than they had been the night before. Emma might not have been aware of it, but Laura knew that both she and Dylan felt the difference. Although she’d spent the rest of the night with Emma while Dylan had slept alone in his room, there was a connection between them that had not existed the day before.

The weather was quite warm, the snow along the side of the road receding.

Elaine opened the cabin door and ushered them into the living room. She’d set out coffee and juice on the coffee table, along with muffins warm from the oven. John slid open one of the doors along the back of the A-frame to let in the mild air.

“Well,” he said, sitting next to Elaine on the love seat. “I need you folks to help me make a decision.” He took Elaine’s hand. “I know I have some legal things to take care of,” he said, “but more important, should I go to Virginia to see Sarah or should I not?”

Everyone looked at Laura. Having thought about this much of the night, she had her own answer. She set her coffee cup down on the table. “Two things could happen,” she said. “Sarah might not recognize you. That’s very likely. She still loves you—she has your picture displayed in her apartment. But she loves the man in that picture. I’m not sure she’d connect you to him. So, then there would be little point to the visit.”

“And the second thing?” John asked.

“If she does recognize you, you would have to tell her you’re…with another woman.” She felt her lower lip start to tremble. “I don’t want her to have that sort of pain and confusion.”

Elaine nodded. “That would be terrible,” she said.

Dylan put his arm around Laura, and Emma looked worriedly at her mother at the sound of that catch in her voice.

Laura studied John’s face for his reaction, but he said nothing. His gaze was fastened on her throat.

“Where did you get that pendant?” he asked.

Laura touched the necklace. “It belonged to my grandmother,” she said.

Frowning, he suddenly stood up. “It’s warm enough for the canoe,” he said. “Let’s take a little ride, Laura. Elaine, will you entertain Dylan and Emma for a bit?”

Elaine looked surprised by the abrupt change of plans but quickly turned to Dylan. “Maybe you and Emma would like to go for a walk with me?” she asked.

“Sounds good,” Dylan agreed.

John was already out the back door. Offering Dylan a confused shrug, Laura followed her host into the yard.

With the strength of a much younger man, John lifted the canoe off the sawhorses and carried it to the water’s edge.

“You go ahead and sit in the bow,” he said as he steadied the craft.

She did as she was told. John handed her an oar, then climbed into the stern.

They paddled silently and at a leisurely pace for a while, Laura wondering if John was less rational than she’d originally thought. What was the purpose of this unscheduled outing?

“Let’s stop for a while,” John said finally. “Turn around and face me, Laura, please.”

She obeyed him again, lifting her feet over the seat to turn around but feeling a bit anxious now. They were a good distance from shore.

John again had his gaze fixed on her pendant. Then he raised his eyes to Laura’s face.

“When Sarah and I got married,” he said, “I had a pin made for her. I believe that pendant you have on was made from her pin.”

Laura touched the necklace again. “That’s impossible. I told you it had been my grandmother’s.”

“Have you ever seen another like it?”

“No. That’s one reason why I treasure it. It’s so unusual.”

“If you look closely at it, you’ll see that it is actually a combination of an S for Sarah and a J for Joe.”

Laura could easily picture the pendant. It had always reminded her of a woman in an old-fashioned, wide-brimmed hat. Resting her oar across the sides of the canoe, she unfastened the necklace and placed it on her knee. There was the woman in the hat, as usual. “I don’t see it,” she said.

John carefully made his way toward her. “See?” he traced the design with his fingertip. “Here’s the S. Here’s the J.”

“My God,” Laura said. “How can this be?”

“Turn it over. Can you see where it had once been a pin?”

Indeed, there were tiny raised bumps of gold on either side of the pendant where the clasp of a pin might have been fixed. Those minuscule protrusions had always been there, but she’d never thought anything of them.

John returned to his seat. “Tell me again how you got it,” he said.

“It belonged to my father’s mother,” Laura said. “I never knew her, but I was named after her. My father gave the necklace to me when I was about eight, shortly after my own mother died. He told me I should always wear it. The pendant was really too big for me then, but I loved it. I’ve worn it nearly every day of my life since he gave it to me.”

“Somehow,” John said, “your father got it from Sarah.”

Laura thought hard, feeling like she’d gone around in a circle, once again trying to determine her father’s connection to Sarah.

“Look at me, Laura,” John said.

She raised her face to his.

“The moment I opened the door yesterday and saw you standing there, you reminded me of my daughter who lives in Alaska. The resemblance is very strong. Elaine even mentioned it.”

“What are you saying?” she asked.

“I believe you’re Janie.”

Laura laughed. “John, I’m sorry, but that’s totally ridiculous. I know who my mother and father were.”

“How old are you?” he asked, then caught himself and smiled. “Forgive the rudeness,” he said.

“It’s true I’m about Janie’s age,” Laura said, “but I was born in July of ‘58. She was born in April.” Her hands shook as she fastened the pendant around her neck again. She recalled with a sudden lurch of her heart that there were no baby pictures of her in her family albums. We lost them when our basement flooded, her father had told her.

“I’d like you to go back to Virginia and learn the truth,” John said. “Show Sarah the pendant. Then call me to tell me what you’ve discovered.”