It was impossible to imagine everything that had happened when he was a baby.
—Why did they never look for me when he recovered?
That was the question I had been waiting twenty years to ask.
My father closed his eyes.
—Because we made the worst mistake of our lives.
Her voice sounded completely different.
It was no longer the firm voice of the proud man he remembered.
It was the voice of someone who had been living with guilt for too long.
—During the first few months we thought that, when everything was over, we would talk to you.
My mother added:
—But time passed… and each day it became more difficult for us to face what had happened.
I didn’t understand.
-Difficult?
My mother nodded.
—We felt ashamed.
He lowered his gaze.
—We were wrong about you. When we learned you were struggling to get ahead on your own, we wanted to find you many times… but we no longer knew how.
Tears filled her eyes again.
—We thought you would never forgive us.
I looked at Sofia.
She remained completely motionless.
Suddenly he spoke.
-So…
He paused.
—Is Valentina… my twin sister?
No one answered.
It wasn’t necessary.
The answer was written on our faces.
Sofia began to cry.
She sat down slowly on the sofa without taking her eyes off me.
—All my life I thought my parents had died in an accident when I was little.
Those words surprised me.
-That?
My mother started crying again.
—That’s what we were advised to tell you.
-Who?
—The psychologist who treated you when you were a child. She thought it would be less painful than growing up believing you had been abandoned.
Sofia shook her head.
-So…
He looked directly at me.
—I’ve been living with my grandparents for twenty years… without knowing that my mother was still alive?
I couldn’t hold back the tears.
—I also lived for twenty years believing that you had not survived.
Neither of them knew what to do.
There were too many mixed emotions.
Rage.
Sadness.
Relief.
Confusion.
After a few seconds, Sofia slowly got up.
He walked towards me.
We stood face to face.
For a few moments neither of them spoke.
Finally, he raised a hand and gently touched my face.
—We look very much alike…
I smiled through my tears.
