“You.”
“Yes.”
“But the DNA says Benjamin is your brother.”
“Yes.”
“Then one of your parents had another child.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward Lucas.
“Which one?”
His answer was almost inaudible.
“We don’t know.”
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“Of course you don’t.”
Douglas reached for me.
I took his hand.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
My anger had vanished.
So had my confusion.
What remained was something deeper.
A realization that the story I had always believed about my life was incomplete.
Maybe everyone’s was.
We believed our parents began when we were born.
We forgot they had entire lives before us.
Promises.
Heartbreaks.
Mistakes.
People they loved.
Things they regretted.
Secrets they carried until they died.
“What happened when you contacted Benjamin?” I asked.
Lucas looked uncomfortable.
“At first, he thought I was trying to scam him.”
“Reasonable.”
“Eventually I convinced him to talk.”
