The Secret They Kept
Before we could say more, my mother stepped from the elevator — followed by Celeste. My mother didn’t look surprised. She looked terrified.
Celeste spoke first: “I suspected. Your mother saw Maren with the twins five years ago — their age matched perfectly.”
My head spun. “You knew for five years?”
“I wrote to her,” my mother said quietly. “I asked her not to contact you — you’d built a new life. I thought I was protecting you.”
“From your own grandchildren?”
Then we went to see Maren’s father Arthur, who’d been admitted for heart trouble. He looked at me sadly: “Maren found out six weeks after you left. She called, emailed — you never got it. Then your mother’s letter arrived. She believed you’d chosen to walk away.”
She pulled out the letter: Adrian has moved on. Contacting him will only bring confusion. Please let him remain free.
“I wasn’t asking for money,” Maren said, her voice breaking. “I just wanted you to know you were going to be a father.”
