After I recovered, Mark told Beth I was too emotionally fragile to speak to her.
Later, he claimed I blamed Beth for taking my baby and wanted nothing to do with either of them.
Meanwhile, he told me Beth had abandoned me because she couldn’t handle seeing Cole.
For eight years, we had both believed the other had walked away.
Beth had raised the boy she called Stefan.
Then she moved back to the area for work.
Stefan earned a place at Cole’s school.
Mark apparently tried to convince her to choose somewhere else.
She refused.
She was tired of uprooting Stefan because of a story she no longer fully trusted.
I stared at her.
“I called you for months.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“Mark told me answering would make things worse for you.”
Then Beth reached into her purse.
She pulled out an old folded letter.
My name was at the bottom.
