“So I’m the only person who didn’t know the arrangement.”
“Basically.”
“Wonderful.”
He said Lily had initially asked him not to tell me.
She hadn’t contacted him because she wanted a replacement father.
She had parents. Good ones.
She wanted answers. Medical history. Family traits. Where she got certain habits.
At first, she didn’t even tell her adoptive parents she’d reached out.
Later, she did.
They supported her.
“But that explains the first few months,” I said. “What about the next two years?”
Ben looked wrecked. “That part is me.”
Finally.
He admitted that after our fertility problems, telling me became harder.
He knew what the existence of a healthy adult daughter might stir up.
“I watched you lose Sophie,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“I thought if I told you—”
“Do not use Sophie to explain why you lied.”
He stopped.
“You didn’t protect me from pain. You decided I couldn’t handle the truth.”
