The silence between us felt like a crack spreading through glass.
Then Karl spoke again.
“If you walk out of this house with those documents,” he said, “don’t come back.”
I stared at him.
“You’d choose a lie over the truth?”
“I’d choose the woman who raised me over the one who threw me away.”
I packed our daughters’ things that night and left. We went to stay with my cousin Madison.
Three weeks later, we all met at the lawyer’s office for the reading of Carla’s will.
Karl sat across the room from me, stiff and silent.
A woman sat beside the window, twisting her hands nervously.
I recognized her from the address Janice had sent me.
Marissa.
The lawyer cleared her throat.
“There is a clause in Carla’s will that must be acknowledged before the estate can be transferred.”
She looked directly at Karl.
“According to legal records, Karl was placed in Carla’s care under emergency custody after suspected abandonment. Marissa Cole is his biological mother.”
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