My Mother Asked for Forgiveness
Rachel was staying at a motel near the highway.
I agreed to meet her the next morning at a quiet diner, but I asked Dad to come with me.
He hesitated.
“This meeting should be about what you need.”
“What I need is for you to be there.”
So he came.
Rachel was already sitting in a booth when we arrived. Without sunglasses, she looked older than she had from across the stadium.
She stood as I approached.
“You look so much like—”
“Please don’t say I look like him,” I interrupted.
She nodded and sat down.
For several seconds, none of us spoke.
Finally, I asked, “Why did you ruin my graduation?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I panicked. Ethan said he was going to tell you, but I thought he might change his mind.”
“He raised me for eighteen years. You disappeared for eighteen years. Why did you think you had the right to decide when I heard the truth?”
“I didn’t.”
Her answer surprised me.
She didn’t defend herself.
She admitted that she had arrived expecting a dramatic reunion. She had imagined that I would hear the secret, become angry with Dad, and turn to her for answers.
“I wanted one moment when you needed me,” she said. “Even if I had to create it. That was selfish.”
“Yes, it was.”
“I know.”
She told me she had left Adrian after four years. Their life together had not become the glamorous future he promised. By the time he regretted giving me up, she was too ashamed to admit where I was.
