The elderly woman intertwined her fingers.And you took him at his word?I nearly burst out laughing. “Neither ‘an arrangement,’ nor separation, existed between us. I was informed by him that he worked late. Our money was tight, he told me. He never once mentioned going to see and support a second family.
The elderly woman’s nose bridge was pinched. The younger woman approached me and fixed her gaze on me. She had eyes like Thomas’s.He told you nothing about us.
I gave a headshake.
She gave the elder woman a look. “Mom, that means she doesn’t know the rest of it either.”
The elderly woman’s nose bridge was pinched.What’s the remainder?
The elderly woman stood up straight. “After he retired this year, he was going to leave you. We didn’t go to the funeral because of this. We were afraid we might not be accepted.
I took a swallow. “He died two weeks before he could retire.”
The unit fell silent. Thomas’s falsehoods loomed over us as we stood there looking at one another. The failsafe was for them; he had no intention of me discovering this location. Just in case they needed it.
Before I could stop them, my knees gave up. I put my hands to my face while I sat. Every anniversary, every hospital visit, every Thursday night I waited with food in the oven—all forty-two years suddenly fell apart.
I felt stupid. old. interchangeable. For a split second, all I wanted to do was drive home, lock the unit, and act like I hadn’t seen anything.
The younger woman then moved to the front.”The remainder of what?”I am I’m Sofia, and this is Elena, my mother.Was he your dad?
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