Rebecca reached across the table and took my hand.
“So have I.”
PART 5: THE TRUTH WE FINALLY CHOSE
Rebecca remained at the kitchen table for a long time after reading the letters, occasionally returning to passages as though they might change if she looked at them again. In less than an hour, the history of her entire family had been rewritten by people who were no longer alive to explain themselves.
She finally asked whether Carol had known from the beginning that Anna and I were her biological parents. I told her the evidence showed that Carol knew far more than she had ever admitted and had spent decades carrying the secret.
“Was Mom trying to protect me?”
“Maybe at first. But after enough years passed, I think she was protecting herself too.”
Rebecca wiped her eyes and stared at the letters. I could see that she was trying to hold two versions of Carol in her mind at once: the mother who had loved and raised her, and the woman who had hidden the truth about her birth.
