“Who is this woman?” I finally whispered.
The stranger answered:
“Her name was Elizabeth. She was my sister.”
“And the child?”
He lowered his eyes.
“That child is your husband’s son.”
The world seemed to stop spinning.
“That’s impossible! Robert and I were already engaged back then!”
“I know.”
“Then why are you telling me this now?”
The man introduced himself as Daniel.
He explained that 46 years earlier, his sister and Robert had been living together. Robert had promised to marry Elizabeth, but then he met me.
When Elizabeth told him she was expecting his baby, Robert walked away.
“My sister waited for years, hoping he would come back,” Daniel said. “But he never did.”
I felt tears filling my eyes.
But Daniel wasn’t finished.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
He explained that Elizabeth had passed away twelve years earlier. Her son, Michael, was now 45 years old.
