“Then tell me now.”
Her hand fell away.
Ben stood slowly.
“I had a daughter before you.”
I stared at him.
“Had?”
“She’s alive…”
My hold on Evie tightened.
“I had a daughter before you.”
“How old?”
“She’s eighteen.”
“You have an 18-year-old daughter, and neither of you thought I should know?”
“Liza…”
“Not during eight years of marriage? Not during six years of trying for a baby?”
Diane stepped forward.
“She’s eighteen.”
“He was very young, Liza. He didn’t even know what decisions he was making.”
“How young?”
“I was 20,” Ben said.
“What happened?”
“My girlfriend got pregnant. I panicked. Mom thought I wasn’t ready. I saw Claire once after she was born.”
I looked down at Evelyn, then at him.
“My girlfriend got pregnant.”
“That’s what happened in the hospital.”
His eyes filled.
“You weren’t looking at Evie. You were seeing her. You were seeing the baby you abandoned.”
