I couldn\u2019t hear anything after those words.<\/p>\n
The room became a blur.<\/p>\n
My mother crying.<\/p>\n
My father breathing heavily.<\/p>\n
Dr. Collins explaining something.<\/p>\n
None of it made sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biological father?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The question sounded strange coming from my own mouth.<\/p>\n
My mother looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaya\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I stepped back.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t say my name like everything is normal.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face crumpled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to tell you.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
Always silence.<\/p>\n
Always after the damage was done.<\/p>\n
My father sat down slowly.<\/p>\n
I looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
His eyes were full of pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaya\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t answer immediately.<\/p>\n
And that hesitation hurt more than anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suspected.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My heart sank.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou suspected?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He rubbed his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you never told me?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I was protecting you.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone keeps saying that.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My voice became louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut everyone is just protecting themselves.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody argued.<\/p>\n
Because it was true.<\/p>\n
My mother sat at the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was nineteen when I met your biological father.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis name was Jonathan Reed.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The name meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n
But it clearly meant something to my father.<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou told me he was gone.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNicole.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe died years ago.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at my parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you lie?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother cried quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I was afraid.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf what?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at my father.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf losing you.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kept a secret about who I am because you were afraid I\u2019d leave?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was afraid you would hate me.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The honesty hurt.<\/p>\n
Because maybe she was right.<\/p>\n
My father stood up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Jonathan\u2019s file?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother looked confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou heard me.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRichard\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew this day might come.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked away.<\/p>\n
That was an answer.<\/p>\n
My father walked toward the cabinet near the hallway.<\/p>\n
He opened a drawer.<\/p>\n
Then another.<\/p>\n
Finally, he pulled out an old envelope.<\/p>\n
My hands went cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is that?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I met Jonathan.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother looked shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kept that?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I knew something was wrong.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He placed the envelope on the table.<\/p>\n
Inside were old documents.<\/p>\n
Photos.<\/p>\n
Letters.<\/p>\n
My father looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to tell you when you were older.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m seventeen.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The pain in his voice made me look away.<\/p>\n
Then Dr. Collins picked up one of the documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something else.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat now?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed at a medical record.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe baby\u2019s DNA connection makes sense now.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe baby\u2019s father is Daniel Carter.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Daniel is Jonathan Reed\u2019s son.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody moved.<\/p>\n
The room tilted.<\/p>\n
Daniel whispered:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Collins continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cJonathan had another child before he died.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked at Nicole.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My father stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Daniel is\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Collins nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour daughter\u2019s half-brother.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
The words landed like a bomb.<\/p>\n
I looked at Daniel.<\/p>\n
The man who had stood in my house.<\/p>\n
The man connected to my mother.<\/p>\n
The man who was about to have a child with her.<\/p>\n
And now he was connected to me.<\/p>\n
Not as a stranger.<\/p>\n
As family.<\/p>\n
Daniel stepped backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t possible.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My mother started crying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
My father looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t know his father was Jonathan?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never told me.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel looked sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to leave.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody stopped him.<\/p>\n
He walked to the door.<\/p>\n
But before he opened it, his phone rang.<\/p>\n
He looked down.<\/p>\n
Then froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d\u201d my father asked.<\/p>\n
Daniel slowly turned the screen around.<\/p>\n
It was a message.<\/p>\n
From an unknown number.<\/p>\n
One sentence.<\/p>\n
*You need to tell them the truth about what happened the night Jonathan died.<\/em>*<\/p>\n Daniel\u2019s face went pale.<\/p>\n My father stared at the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I couldn\u2019t hear anything after those words. The room became a blur. My mother crying. My father breathing heavily. Dr. Collins explaining something. None of it made sense. \u201cMy biological…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}