PART 5 — THE SECOND SECRET
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
“Twins?”
Anna nodded.
“A boy and a girl.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Where is the boy?”
Anna closed her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
My voice rose.
“You don’t know?”
“Carol took him.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where?”
“I’ve spent forty years trying to find out.”
Emily looked shocked.
“You never told me that.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
Anna looked at her daughter.
“Because I didn’t want you to spend your life searching for someone who might not want to be found.”
I turned toward Anna.
“His name?”
“Michael.”
I whispered the name.
Michael.
My son.
A child I had never known existed.
A child whose life had been erased from mine.
“Why would Carol do this?”
Anna finally looked directly at me.
“Because she wasn’t only afraid of losing you.”
“What else?”
“She believed your life would be destroyed if the truth came out.”
“That doesn’t explain taking my son.”
Anna nodded.
“No. It doesn’t.”
She sat down.
Then she told me something that changed everything.
“When the twins were born, Carol wasn’t just your girlfriend.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“She was pregnant too.”
I froze.
“What?”
Anna continued.
“She told me she was carrying your child.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“It was.”
“But I never knew.”
“She didn’t want you to know.”
I suddenly remembered.
The first months after I met Carol.
Her strange mood changes.
The doctor’s appointment she refused to discuss.
The day she disappeared for several weeks.
The story she later told me about being sick.
I had believed her.
Because I loved her.
Anna continued:
“Carol gave birth to a baby girl months after the twins were born.”
I stared at her.
“Where is that child?”
Anna shook her head.
“She died.”
My heart sank.
“What?”
“She was born with a serious medical condition.”
Carol had lost a child.
And somehow, instead of telling me, she had buried the truth.
I sat down slowly.
“Then why?”
Anna looked at me.
“Because Carol believed she had lost her own child because of the chaos surrounding your relationship with me.”
I closed my eyes.
For decades, Carol had carried grief I had never known about.
But that still didn’t explain everything.
“What happened to Michael?”
Anna pulled out another envelope.
“This came to me eight years ago.”
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph of a young man.
On the back was an address.
I stared at the face.
There was something unmistakable.
The shape of the eyes.
The jaw.
The small scar above the eyebrow.
It was like looking at a younger version of myself.
“He’s alive.”
Anna nodded.
“His name isn’t Michael anymore.”
“What is it?”
“Daniel.”
I looked at the address.
“He lives three hours from here.”
My heart pounded.
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“Because Carol asked me not to.”
“Eight years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Anna’s voice became almost a whisper.
“Because she was dying even then.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“She had been diagnosed with cancer years before she told you.”
I felt as though the floor had disappeared.
“Carol knew?”
“She knew she would eventually have to tell you.”
“Then why wait?”
Anna looked down.
“Because she was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
“Of what?”
“She knew the truth would destroy the life you thought you had.”
I stared at the photograph.
My entire life had been built on information I never possessed.
But there was one thing I still didn’t understand.
I looked at Anna.
“If Carol knew she was dying eight years ago, why didn’t she tell me then?”
Anna’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because she wanted to give you a few more years of happiness.”
I almost laughed.
“Happiness?”
Anna nodded.
“She told me you loved her.”
I closed my eyes.
“I did.”
“She said that even if she had to carry the guilt forever, she wanted your final years together to be peaceful.”
I looked at Emily.
“And now?”
Emily stepped forward.
“Now she wants you to know the truth.”
