“Of course.”
“And don’t come near me.”
He nodded and sat down on the bench.
I called Evelyn.
She answered almost immediately.
“Claire? Is everything all right?”
I could barely speak.
“Mom, Dad just told me that I’m adopted. He says my biological mother was his sister and that she died when I was born. Is that true?”
Silence.
I heard her breathing on the other end of the line.
Then she began to cry.
“Oh, Claire.”
“Tell me it’s not true!”
She made a small, broken sound.
“I wish I could.”
I sank onto a stone beside the path.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because we were afraid.”
“Afraid of what? That I would stop loving you?”
“No, sweetheart. We were afraid that you would feel as though you didn’t belong to us.”
I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand.
“Well, now I feel like I don’t know who I am.”
