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painting. “No, I didn’t.” She sat down next to Holly and thought hard. “Is there any other place Michael kept things?” she wondered out loud.
    “Mommy and Daddy keep things in their closet,” Holly told her. “And in drawers.” So they carefully went through every possible space until Rachel was convinced she knew every square inch of the apartment by heart.
    “What about storage in the basement?”
    Holly just shrugged.
    Rachel called down to maintenance, and the guy in charge explained which unit belonged to their apartment. “You’ll need a key to unlock it. The tenants provide their own padlocks.” She thanked him, and remembering where she’d seen some miscellaneous keys, she returned to find one that was marked for the storage unit. Naturally, Holly wanted to go down with her. On their way down, Holly pointed out her dad’s car, still parked in its spot in the garage. Rachel stared longingly at the old red Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, remembering how Michael had taught her to drive in that car—back before it was so beautifully restored. They continued on downto the storage area and found the right unit. The key worked, but after a long search Rachel knew that no legal documents would be stored down here. They did find the Christmas decorations, however, as well as a couple of boxes of wrapped Christmas presents, which Holly insisted on lugging back to the apartment and arranging beneath the tree.
    After the gifts were placed under the tree, Holly looked up at Rachel, asking her again if she’d found what she was looking for.
    Rachel just shook her head. “No, and that means you and I need to talk.”
    Holly blinked. “Did I do something bad?”
    “No, no. Not at all. It’s not that kind of talk.” She took Holly’s hand. “But this talk might require some ice cream. I think we still have a carton of rocky road in the freezer.” As she led the way to the kitchen, she silently asked God to help her with what was sure to be another difficult conversation.

4
    They were seated across from each other at the breakfast bar, quietly eating their ice cream while Rachel tried to think of a way to begin. “You know when we went to see Walt this afternoon?”
    “Uh-huh.” Holly nodded as a streak of brown ice cream ran down her chin.
    Rachel slid a napkin over to her, pointing at her chin. “Well, Walt had some, uh, some interesting news for us.”
    “What news?” Holly took another bite.
    Rachel knew she needed to put a positive spin on this. She needed, for Holly’s sake, to act like this was all wonderful news. “For starters—you, my dear, have another aunt.”
    Holly looked up with wide eyes. “I have another aunt? You mean besides you?”
    Rachel tried to keep her face pleasant as she nodded. “Yes. I was quite surprised too. It seems your mommy has a sister.”
    “My mommy has a sister?” She tipped her head to one side as if trying to grasp this. “I always wished I had a sister.”
    “Well, you might get your wish.” Rachel couldn’t rememberif Walt had mentioned whether Lydia’s other children were boys or girls, but as she recalled he’d said there were several. “Anyway, you’ll either have brothers or sisters or both.”
    Holly looked stunned. “I have brothers and sisters ?”
    Rachel caught her mistake. “I’m sorry. Actually, they’re cousins .”
    “I have cousins?” Holly brightened. “My friend Allison has lots and lots of cousins. She’s always telling me about her cousins. Now I have cousins too?”
    Rachel smiled. “Yes, you do.”
    “Can I play with them?”
    “Yes,” she said. “In fact, you will be seeing them soon. Even before Christmas.” They’d been using the advent calendar to count the days until Christmas, so she knew Holly could easily grasp this time concept.
    “Are they coming here to see me?” Holly’s eyes lit up. “For my birthday?”
    “No. Actually, you will be going to visit them.”
    “Really? Where do they