Three Days Before Our Wedding, My Fiancé Forced Me Into a Car and Tied My Legs Together. When I Asked Why He Was Doing This, He Replied, “Your Mother Paid Me $50,000 to Bring You Here.” But When I Discovered Why My Mother Had Really Paid Him, My Knees Nearly Gave Way…

Her voice trembled.

“Every birthday, I wondered what you were doing. I wondered whether you liked school, whether you had friends, whether you were happy. Sometimes I bought a little cake and lit a candle. It was a private ritual, something I did because I didn’t know how else to celebrate the day you were born.”

I couldn’t stop crying.

For years, I had celebrated my birthday with Margaret.

Now I was imagining another woman, somewhere else, lighting a candle for the same day.

Two mothers.

Two separate lives.

One daughter caught between them.

I looked at Sarah.

“Did you ever regret signing the adoption papers?”

She pressed the handkerchief to her lips.

“Not because I wanted to give you away. I regretted that my circumstances had left me feeling that I couldn’t give you the life you deserved. But I knew you were going to a woman who loved you.”