“I’m not telling you this so you’ll hate her.”
Anna’s voice was gentle.
“I’m telling you because she sent you here. I think she wanted you to finally know.”
I asked whether Anna had ever searched for the daughter she had surrendered. She told me the adoption had been private and completely closed, leaving her without a family name, an address, or any practical way to find the child.
That was when another possibility occurred to me. If my mother had controlled Anna’s access to me and pressured her through the pregnancy, there was a good chance Ruth had also been involved in arranging the adoption.
“I think my mother handled it.”
Anna frowned.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because if anyone kept records, she did.”
I left Pittsburgh with one thought following me through the entire drive home. Carol had asked me to forgive her, which meant there was still something she believed I had not yet discovered.
