The words came out harder than I intended.

“Yes,” Anna said simply.

“You did.”

I looked back at the letter.

There was still a second page.

*I am writing this now because I think you deserve to know the truth, even if it comes too late to change anything.

I don’t know if you ever married.

I hope you found someone who made you happy.

I hope you built a good life.*

*But there is one more thing I have to tell you.

Something I kept from James as well.

Something that has weighed on me far longer than the lie at the door.*

*When you came to find him that day, you were not alone in your reasons.*

*You were pregnant.*

The letter dropped from my hands.

Anna didn’t move to pick it up.

“Is it true?” I said.

My voice came out as almost nothing.

“Yes,” she said.

Chapter 4: The Child I Never Knew About

The kitchen was very quiet.

Outside, a car passed slowly on the street.

A dog barked twice somewhere down the block.

Inside, neither of us moved.

“You were pregnant,” I said again.

Not a question this time.

Just the words, out loud, because they didn’t feel real yet.

“Yes.”

“And Carol knew.”

Anna looked at me steadily.

“I don’t know exactly what I said at the door that day.

I was nervous.

I may have told her I needed to speak with you urgently.

I may have said more than that.

I honestly don’t remember every word.” She paused.

“But she sent me that letter six months later.

So she knew enough to feel guilty about it.”

I pushed back from the table and stood up.

I needed to move.

I walked to the window and stood there with my back to her.

“What happened?” I said.

“With the baby.”

“I had her,” Anna said.

“I went home to my mother’s house.

I had her there.”

I turned around.

“A girl,” I said.

“A girl.” Anna’s voice was steady, but her hands tightened around the cup.

“I named her Claire.”

The name landed like something physical.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“She’s forty years old,” Anna said.

“She lives about twenty minutes from here.

She has two children of her own.” A pause.

“Your grandchildren, James.

If you want to think of them that way.”

I sat back down because I didn’t trust my legs anymore.