“They need honesty more.”
For once, Adrian didn’t get to decide when I was ready for the truth.
The next morning, I asked him to come over.
My mother stayed upstairs with the twins.
“Start at the beginning,” I said.
Adrian finally told me everything.
He and Marina had both been nineteen when Lena was born.
His parents believed becoming a father so young would destroy his future.
They pressured him into signing an agreement that removed him from Lena’s everyday life.
Adrian continued sending letters anyway.
Eventually, he came to believe Marina truly wanted him gone.
Years passed.
Then five months earlier, after Marina died, Lena found his letters and his contact information.
She reached out.
Adrian panicked.
He was preparing for the birth of Noah and Eli while suddenly being confronted by the daughter he had spent seventeen years trying not to think about.
“I was ashamed,” he admitted.
“You still chose to hide her.”
“I didn’t know how to bring seventeen years of mistakes into our home.”
“You start by telling the truth.”
He glanced toward the stairs where the twins were sleeping.
“What happens now?”
I gave him an answer he clearly wasn’t expecting.
“Bring Lena here tomorrow.”
PART 3
Adrian stared at me.
“Claire, are you sure?”
“I’m not forgiving you.”
I paused.
“But Lena isn’t going to pay for your choices.”
The next afternoon, Adrian brought her to our house.
Lena froze just inside the doorway when Eli began to cry.
She looked nervous.
“Can I hold him?”
I gently placed Eli into her arms and showed her how to support his head.
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
Within an hour, she was sitting between the twins’ cribs, learning every small detail about them.
Noah always kicked off his blanket.
Eli hated the stuffed fox.
