What could he possibly have to do with a girl Sophie had only just brought into our lives?
“I promised Mia I wouldn’t involve her.”
“What does your father have to do with Mia?”
Sophie swallowed. “I can’t tell you that. Not yet.”
“Then who can?”
“Laura.”
I hadn’t heard that name in twenty years.
The baby wasn’t the real secret anymore.
Whatever Sophie had uncovered about her father, it had led her straight back to the woman I’d spent twenty years trying to forget.
“Is Mia her daughter?”
Sophie looked away.
“Where does Laura live?”
“I promised Mia I wouldn’t involve her.”
“Sophie.”
We moved to another city and started over.
The baby wasn’t the real secret anymore.
Sophie closed her eyes.
Then she gave me the address. It was in the city where Daniel and I had lived at the start of our marriage.
It was in the city I had been trying to forget for years.
I told Sophie I had errands.
She didn’t believe me, but she didn’t stop me.
“How do you know my daughter?”
The next morning, I stood outside a small house painted a tired yellow.
I knocked. Laura opened the door.
For a second, I was twenty years younger again, standing in our bedroom doorway and finding her with my husband.
I had been pregnant with Sophie then. Maybe that was why I’d stayed. I told Daniel I would forgive him on one condition: Laura disappeared from our lives completely. No calls. No messages. No second chances.
A month later, we moved to another city and started over.
“Mia was his.”
“Karen.”
“Laura.”
Neither of us smiled.
“I’m looking for Mia,” I said.
Laura’s expression changed. “How do you know my daughter?”
My daughter.
“She left after we had a fight.”
“Sophie came here looking for her months ago.”
Understanding crossed Laura’s face. “You really don’t know.”
I’d heard those words before. “Know what?”
Laura stepped back from the door. “Mia was his,” she said. “Daniel never knew. I never told him.”
“What?!”
I heard myself cry out
“You knew she was pregnant?”
“Sophie found my name in some of his old things six months ago. She contacted Mia. They did a DNA test. That’s why she took the job here.”
Sophie had known she had a sister for months. The question was why she’d been so afraid to tell me.
“Has Mia called you lately?” I asked.
Laura’s mouth tightened. “Barely. She left after we had a fight.”
“About what?”
“I’d find someone who could.”
For the first time, Laura looked away. “She was pregnant.”
I stared at her. “You knew she was pregnant?”
“Of course. I told her she was nineteen, broke, and in no position to raise a child.”
“What did you expect her to do?”
“Let me help.”
“Meaning?”
“I want to hear it from her.”
Laura folded her arms. “If she couldn’t support the baby, I’d find someone who could.”
That was when the pieces finally connected.
Sophie hadn’t taken the baby from Mia. She’d been helping her hide it.
Suddenly, I understood why Mia hadn’t come home.
“Do you know where she is?”
“No.” Laura studied me. “Do you?”
“Laura would take her from me.”
“No.”
Even if I’d known where Mia was, I never would have told a mother who was threatening to take her baby away.
I drove until I found a parking lot, then called Sophie. “I know who Mia is.”
I heard the baby fuss softly in the background. The silence on the other end was long.
“Mom.”
“Where is she, Sophie? The real address. I want to hear it from her.”
“So you and Sophie made a plan.”
An hour later, the motel door opened on a girl who looked younger than nineteen and was holding a phone charger like a lifeline.
“You’re Sophie’s mom.”
“I am. Can I come in, Mia?”
She stepped aside. The room smelled like laundry detergent and cheap coffee.
“Laura would take her from me,” Mia said before I even sat down.
“I take my daughter back.”
“She told me.”
Mia’s expression changed. “You saw her?”
“Before I knew why you were hiding.”
