I saw my mother’s jawline.
She looked at me.
“When Jim called, I drove here the next day. I couldn’t keep waiting for answers.”
“But why here?”
“Jim suggested meeting somewhere away from home, somewhere neither of us had memories attached to.” Elena admitted. “He thought it would feel less overwhelming than showing up at your front door.”
I looked at her face. Really looked. And I saw my mother’s jawline. My mother’s eyes.
Not mine.
You let me think you were cheating.
“Twenty-nine years,” I whispered. “I’ve been someone else for twenty-nine years.”
“You’ve been you,” Bruce said. “You’ve always been you.”
I could not hear him.
I pushed the folder away, stumbled backward into a chair, then out the door. The bell clattered again behind me.
I walked the beach alone, sand cold under my feet, grief and fury wrestling inside me. The sun was bleeding orange across the water when Bruce finally found me.
You gave me a broken world.
“Claire, please. Let me explain.”
“You had weeks,” I said, not turning around. “Weeks of whispers, and you let me think you were cheating.”
“I wanted to be sure first. Lily’s screening came back with that marker, and I panicked. I didn’t want to hand you a broken world before I knew it was real.”
Bruce lowered his eyes. “I kept hoping that if we found all the answers first, the truth wouldn’t shatter your world all at once. I wasn’t shutting you out, Claire — I was terrified of watching the ground disappear beneath your feet.”
I turned to face him. “So you gave me a broken world anyway. Just without me in the room when it happened.”
No piece of paper could take that away.
“I know.” His voice cracked. “I was scared of losing you. Scared you’d blame me for finding it.”
“I deserved to be there, Bruce. Not protected. Present.”
He nodded slowly. “You’re right. I’m so sorry.”
I sank onto the sand and watched the tide, remembering my mother’s off-key lullabies, her gentle hands, and every moment she had been there for me. Whatever the DNA said, no piece of paper could take that away.
I still didn’t know why she’d hidden the truth — whether she’d been protecting me, protecting Elena, or simply protecting herself. And now I never would, because she’d been gone for five years.
