Anna continued, her voice shaking slightly.
“Mrs.
Parker, I’m sorry if I caused trouble.”
“Rebecca,” I said automatically.
Then I caught myself.
Even furious, apparently I still had manners.
“And you didn’t cause this.”
Daniel looked at me.
I kept my eyes on the floor.
“Daniel caused the lie.
You sent a letter.
Those aren’t the same thing.”
Anna exhaled.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“I believe you.”
I meant it.
We spoke for only a few more minutes.
I asked whether she was safe, whether she had people supporting her and whether anyone was pressuring her for money.
She laughed nervously at the last question.
“No.
I really just wanted to know where I came from.”
When the call ended, Daniel was crying silently.
I had seen my husband cry twice before: when Owen was born and when Lily spent a night in the hospital with pneumonia.
This was different.
He wasn’t crying because he had been exposed.
He was grieving twenty-four years all at once.
I understood that too.
And I was still furious.
Both things could be true.
“You’re sleeping downstairs,” I said.
Daniel nodded.
“Okay.”
“Tomorrow you call Brian.
You tell him you lied about where you were.
You don’t invent a medical emergency.
You don’t use Anna as an excuse.”
“I will.”
“And we tell the kids something truthful, but not everything, until Anna decides she’s ready for them to know about her.”
“Agreed.”
“And Daniel?”
He looked up.
“If there is one more secret you think you’re protecting me from, tonight is your last chance.”
There wasn’t another one.
At least none that surfaced then or later.
The next morning, Daniel called Brian from the kitchen while I drank coffee six feet away.
He admitted he had skipped work without notice and had lied to his family about being there.
Brian was angry.
Daniel received a formal warning and lost the flexibility he had previously enjoyed on weekend projects for several months.
I didn’t enjoy watching him face that consequence.
But I needed to see him stop hiding behind explanations.
Later, we told Owen and Lily that Dad had lied about going to work because he was dealing with something important from before they were born.
Owen frowned.
“So you really were lying?”
Daniel crouched until they were eye level.
“Yes.
And being scared doesn’t make lying okay.”
