Part 2: Before my husband passed away, he asked me to deliver a sealed letter to a woman I'd never met — after she read the first line, she looked at me and asked, "Did he tell you everything?"

"She's an adult," Rachel reminded me. "Whatever happened at her birth, she deserves the truth and the opportunity to decide what information she wants."

I looked toward Catherine's front door.

For twenty-nine years, I'd believed that motherhood began the moment Emily was placed in my arms.

Now I was realizing that another woman might have been grieving for that same child.

A woman who'd lost her daughter without ever knowing where she'd gone.

I sat in my car for a long time.

Then I called Zane.

He answered immediately.

"Mara?"

His familiar voice almost broke me.

"Where are you?"

"At home. Why?"

I closed my eyes.

"I met Catherine."

Silence.

Complete silence.

Then he whispered, "Oh, God."

I felt tears filling my eyes.

"You knew."

He didn't answer.

"Zane, tell me you didn't know."

His voice broke.

"Mara, please come home."

***

He was sitting at the kitchen table when I arrived.