Dad’s voice got louder.
“That was cruel, even for you, Dad. You made me think she abandoned me.”
For once, Dad didn’t argue or defend himself.
When I told him I needed space, he ended the call.
That’s how I knew Anna wasn’t lying.
“That was cruel.”
***
Anna and I spent the next few weeks doing something neither of us knew how to do.
Starting over.
We didn’t pretend the missing years hadn’t happened.
***
She told me stories from when I was too young to remember.
We didn’t pretend.
I told her about college, jobs, bad roommates, and the time I flooded my first apartment because I thought one plumbing video qualified me to do the job.
She laughed so hard she had to put down her coffee!
I started reading the birthday letters she had kept.
Anna’s appearance also answered a question I’d carried for years.
