For days, I couldn’t stop wondering who she was and why Jack had kept their meetings from me.
Then, one afternoon, someone knocked on my door.
It was the woman.
“My name is Mara,” she said. “Jack asked me to give you this.”
She handed me an envelope.
“What is it?”
He asked me to wait until after he was gone.”
I opened it with trembling hands.
Jack’s handwriting filled the first page.
Claire,
I’m sorry you’re learning this without me.
There is a little boy named Ethan.
You don’t owe him anything. If you want to stop here, you can.
But if you decide to find him, you’ll understand why I couldn’t walk away.
I’m sorry I never told you.
I read the letter twice.
“Who is Ethan?”
Mara hesitated.
“I can’t answer that.”
“You came to my house with a letter from my husband telling me about a child, and you can’t tell me who he is?”
“Jack wanted you to decide whether you wanted to keep looking.”
“Why?”
“Because once you know something, you can’t unknow it.”
Mara explained that she had known Jack since childhood and had spent years working with families and children. She had helped him learn more about Ethan’s situation.
Before she left, she gave me one final piece of information.
“Jack wanted you to discover the truth in your own way.”
The next morning, I opened Jack’s laptop.
He had changed the password, but eventually I remembered one that mattered to both of us.
The computer opened.
One name appeared repeatedly in his files.
Ethan C.
There were also documents relating to a trust, family records, and several addresses.
I called Mara.
“I found the documents.”
She was quiet.
“I’m going to the address.”
“Please don’t go there angry.”
“I just want the truth.”
“That’s what Jack wanted too.”
The address belonged to a family home where several children were being cared for.
A woman named Denise answered the door.
When she saw me, her expression changed.
