“Why didn’t she look for me?” Emily asked.
“She tried,” he replied. “But the adoption records were complicated. She was afraid of disrupting the life you had been given. She wanted you to have stability.”
Emily wiped her cheeks.
“Did she know where I was?”
My father shook his head.
“Not at first. Later, we learned that you had been adopted by a wonderful family. Your mother was relieved when she heard that you were loved.”
He looked at me.
“And then you two became friends.”
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“At first, I wasn’t certain. But the resemblance was difficult to ignore. Your mother noticed it before I did.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us?”
My father’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Afraid of making a mistake. Afraid of hurting your family. Afraid that Emily’s adoptive parents would think we were trying to take her away. And, most of all, afraid of explaining why we had remained silent for so many years.”
