Then Sarah whispered, “Please do not tell Kevin I am here.”
I reached for her, but confusion stopped me halfway. “You vanish for a year, come home carrying a baby, and that is the first thing you say?”
Pain flashed across her face.
“Mom,” she said, holding my gaze, “Kevin did not send me away because I was a burden. He sent me away because I discovered what he had done.”
The blood seemed to leave my face.
I stepped aside and let her in.
Part 4 – The Child in Her Arms
Sarah sat on the sofa but kept one hand protectively around the baby’s back.
“Her name is Pauline,” she said. “And before you ask, she is not my daughter. She is Bella’s.”
“Who is Bella?”
Sarah looked toward the driveway, making certain Kevin’s car had not returned.
“My half-sister. Dad’s daughter from before he met you.”
The answer was so impossible that I almost laughed. Kevin and I had been married for more than twenty years. Not once had he mentioned another child.
