My Husband Canceled Our Anniversary Dinner Because His Mom Was ‘Sick’ – Then I Froze When I Saw Who She Was With
“Come with me.”
He led me into a small conference room.
The young woman followed us.
Nathan stayed outside.
That made me nervous.
My lawyer closed the door.
Then he said, “This is Yvette.”
She looked at me. “Hi.”
I didn’t respond.
He placed the envelope on the table.
“Yvette asked me to show you these before anything happens today.”
I crossed my arms. “What are they?”
Yvette sat down.
Her hands were shaking.
“My mom died four months ago.”
I didn’t know what that had to do with me. “I’m sorry.”
“Her name was Hannah.”
I knew the name.
Not well. But I knew it.
Nathan had mentioned a Hannah once. Years ago.
A girlfriend from before we met.
Not serious, according to him.
They dated for a few months.
Then parted ways amicably. At least he thought so.
I looked at Yvette.
She pushed a photograph across the table.
Nathan was in it.
Young. Maybe 23.
Standing beside a woman with curly brown hair.
They were at a beach.
Nathan had his arm around her.
On the back was a date.
Almost 23 years earlier.
A few years before I had met him.
“Who is this?”
“My mother.”
Her eyes filled.
“Nathan is my father.”
“What?”
Yvette pulled out another page.
A DNA report from the legal paternity test Nathan and Yvette had taken afterward.
My lawyer said quietly, “Yvette contacted Diane when she suspected that Nathan was her father.”
“You contacted Diane?”
She nodded.
“Why her?”
“I found her online first.”
Yvette explained.
After Hannah died, Yvette went through boxes in her mother’s apartment.
There were letters, photographs, and old journals.
One envelope had Nathan’s full name.
Inside was a letter Hannah had written but apparently never sent.
Yvette handed it to me.
The paper was old. It had been folded several times.
But the handwriting was neat.
I read.
Hannah wrote that she had discovered she was pregnant shortly after ending things with Nathan.
She had considered telling him.
Then another man, Aaron, came back into her life.
Someone she had known for years.
Aaron wanted to raise the baby with her.
Hannah chose that life.
She wrote that Nathan was young and that their relationship had already ended.
So she did not want to pull him back into something he wasn’t even aware of.
She had also decided to build a family with someone else.
The final line made my chest hurt.
