Anna lowered her eyes to her hands.
“I found out I was pregnant three weeks later.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“I was pregnant, Walter.”
The room seemed to shift beneath me.
A child.
Mine and Anna’s.
For forty years, I’d believed I’d lost only her.
“You were carrying MY CHILD?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the baby?”
Anna turned away.
“I gave her up.”
“Why?”
“I was twenty, alone, and terrified. Your mother had convinced me you didn’t want me anymore. She said the baby would have a better life with a family who could give her what I couldn’t.”
“And you believed her?”
“I didn’t think I had another choice.”
My chest tightened.
“Where is she now?”
“I don’t know.”
I thought that was the revelation that would change everything.
I didn’t realize Anna had barely begun.
“You never tried to tell me?”
“I tried. I went to your mother’s house. I thought the baby might make her accept us and help me reach you.”
“What happened?”
“Ruth wouldn’t give me your number. She reminded me what would happen to my family if I contacted you.”
“That’s why you disappeared?”
“That—and what she told me next.”
“What?”
“That you’d already moved on.”
“With who?”
“Carol.”
I stared at her.
“You knew about Carol?”
“Only what Ruth told me.”
