Everything I’d believed about my life, my family—turned upside down in one night.
But the deepest fear—that I had unknowingly married someone I was related to—was eased.
Still, the pain of the secret stung deep.
For days, I wandered the house like a ghost. The walls I had painted, the kitchen where Michael and I danced barefoot—it all felt… unreal.
I stared at Evelyn’s letters again and again. I reread the last line.
“Even if she never knows.”
But now I did know. And I couldn’t carry the burden alone.
When Michael returned, I met him at the door. My hands were trembling, and so was my voice.
“I need to tell you something,” I said.
He listened in stunned silence as I shared everything—my mother, the letters, Mr. Whitaker, the adoption.
At the end, I said, “I don’t know what this means for us. I just know I couldn’t keep it from you.”
Michael didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he sat down beside me, took my hand, and whispered:
“You’re still Claire. And I’m still in love with you. That hasn’t changed.”
