A child I had spent twenty-three years wondering about.
And he hadn’t told me.
“You knew?”
My shock turned to anger.
“For six weeks?”
Amelia stepped forward.
“Please don’t blame him for everything. It wasn’t completely his decision.”
I looked at the package.
“What exactly is in there?”
Amelia carefully unfolded the brown paper.
The first thing she removed was a photograph.
I recognized it instantly.
Claire and me as teenagers at the lake.
She wore a ridiculous bright yellow swimsuit she loved.
My arm was around her shoulders.
Both of us were laughing into the sunlight.
I had kept that photograph in a box in my closet for decades.
Amelia removed another picture.
Claire sitting on our mother’s porch with baby Amelia in her lap.
Then a birthday card.
An old envelope.
A little silver photo frame.
I turned toward Robert.
“You’ve been taking these from Claire’s box.”
