“Mom, I need to ask you something.”
She immediately noticed the change in my voice.
“What is it?”
I removed the old photograph from my handbag and placed it on her blanket.
For several seconds, she stared at it.
Then all the color drained from her face.
Her fingers began to tremble.
“Oh, Emily.”
I felt my throat tighten.
“You recognize them?”
She closed her eyes.
“I prayed this day would never come.”
My heart seemed to stop.
“You knew?”
She shook her head quickly.
“Not everything. Not who they were. Not where they lived. But I knew that your story had begun before we found you.”
I pulled the chair closer.
“Tell me what happened.”
Helen took a deep breath.
“Your father and I had been married for several years. We wanted a child more than anything, but we had been told that it might never happen.”
She wiped her eyes.