“No.”
Lucas stepped toward me.
“Hannah, who is it?”
I heard my mother’s voice in my memory.
The worst thing I ever did began with believing I knew what was best for everyone.
I finally understood why she had hidden the birth certificate.
Why she had hidden Ruth.
Why she had feared Douglas and me comparing our pasts.
Why she’d built a wall in the basement.
Why she’d written forgive me someday on the back of a photograph.
But one thing still made no sense.
If this document was real, Lucas wasn’t only connected to me through my mother’s missing sister.
He was connected to me in another way.
A much closer way.
I looked up at him.
His eyes searched mine.
“Hannah?”
I could barely force the words out.
“The father listed here…”
Douglas pushed himself upright.
“Who?”
I turned the certificate toward them.
