“I know.”
Helen spoke.
“I confronted him three months later.”
“What did he say?”
“That you were happy.”
I laughed bitterly.
The same excuse.
“He said Emily was thriving.”
“That telling you would destroy two lives.”
“Then six months passed.”
“Rebecca didn't return.”
“Zane said the adoption should be finalized.”
“Was there an adoption?”
Helen looked ashamed.
“No.”
My head snapped up.
“What?”
The altered birth record already identified me and Zane as Emily's legal parents.
Correcting it would have exposed the original falsification.
So nobody filed a formal adoption.
I had not unknowingly signed adoption papers.
The original lie simply became the official record.
Eventually the hospital closed.
People moved.
Files disappeared.
Emily grew.
And everyone involved carried on.
I whispered:
“So legally I've been listed as her birth mother for twenty-nine years.”
“Yes.”
Emily asked:
“Can that be fixed?”
Helen looked at me.
I said:
“Only if you want it fixed.”
