My heart started racing.
Inside were three plane tickets.
Three seats.
One destination.
I looked at the name.
And my entire body went cold.
It was the same beach.
The same place where I found them.
The same place I had spent eighteen years trying not to think about.
“No.”
I immediately pushed the tickets away.
“No, girls.”
“Dad—”
“I’m not going back there.”
They looked at each other.
Then Lily whispered:
“We knew you would say that.”
I stared at them.
“What does that mean?”
Neither answered.
Then Rose took a deep breath.
“We’ve been hiding something from you for three years.”
The room became silent.
Three years.
Not three weeks.
Not a few months.
Three years.
“What have you been doing?”
Lily reached for my hand.
“Trying to find out why someone left us there.”
My throat tightened.
“And?”
She looked down.
“We found something.”
“What?”
She squeezed my hand.
“Dad… we found the person who left us.”
The room seemed to spin.
After eighteen years of unanswered questions…
After eighteen years of wondering…
The mystery was no longer a mystery.
“Who was it?”
The twins looked at each other.
Then Lily quietly said:
“You’re not going to believe us.”
“Tell me.”
She opened another envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph that made my blood run cold.
Because standing beside two newborn babies on that beach eighteen years ago…
was someone I knew.
Someone who had been in my life the entire time.
Someone I never expected.
And that was when I realized…
The day I found Lily and Rose was not the day they were abandoned.
It was the day someone tried to hide the truth from me.
And after eighteen years…
my daughters had finally uncovered it.
