“Only since yesterday. Why, Mom? Why didn’t you ever tell me?” My voice shook despite my effort to steady it. “You let him live right next door all this time.”
She lowered herself into a chair, tears shining in her eyes.
“I was nineteen. My parents said he would ruin my life. They made me choose: keep you, or keep him. They threatened to throw me out, to disgrace us. I… I did what they demanded.”
“So you erased him? For them?” My pulse thundered as I continued. “He missed everything. My birthdays, graduations… Did you ever think about what that did to me? Or to him?”
Her shoulders trembled.
“I thought I was protecting you. I believed if I kept him away, you’d have a better life. A normal life, with my parents’ support.”
I shook my head, grief and anger twisting together.
“You did it to protect yourself, Mom. You buried the truth and let me live beside it without ever knowing.”
She wiped at her smeared mascara.
“I’m sorry, honey. I truly am. I thought I could make it disappear.”
“You can’t bury someone forever, Mom. Not really. It always comes back up—you’re the one who taught me that. My father left a letter for you, too.”
I tapped the sealed envelope resting on the table.
“You can tell the family, Mom, or I’ll read his words out loud at dinner on Saturday.”
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