“Do you remember when you came home from rehab?” Mom asked. “After your second surgery?”
“Of course.”
“Jess came to see me not long after that,” she said, wringing her hands. “She was drowning. You were in pain—angry, hurting in ways she didn’t know how to fix.” I stayed silent.
“She told me she’d been with someone else before you returned,” my mother continued, her eyes fixed on the floor. “A one-night mistake. And the day before your wedding… she found out she was pregnant.”
My chest tightened until it hurt. “She wasn’t certain Evie was yours,” my mother said. “Once you came home, you and Jess were together again. But the doubt stayed. And she couldn’t bring herself to tell you after all you’d already endured.”
The room felt suddenly too bright. Too close. Aunt Marlene inhaled sharply. “Addison,” she said. “What did you do?”
My mother pressed her lips together. “I told her the truth would destroy you,” she said quietly. “I told her if she loved you, she should build the life anyway. That Evie could be your second chance.”
“That wasn’t protection,” Aunt Marlene said firmly. “That was control.”
“You had no right,” I said, my voice breaking. “I was trying to protect what little you had left,” my mother whispered.
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