That I’d believed she had died.
That I’d mourned her for 22 years.
Anna eventually agreed to meet me.
But then she found out she was pregnant.
And she became afraid.
She didn’t know how to walk into my life after all those years.
So she asked Michael to wait.
Then, tonight, she went into labor.
Something went wrong.
She had a massive hemorrhage.
Doctors couldn’t save her.
But before she died, she told the nurses exactly where she wanted Lucy to go.
To me.
I looked down at the baby.
“Why didn’t Michael tell me before tonight?”
Eleanor looked at him.
He finally answered.
“Because I thought I could give you time.”
“Time for what?”
“To become her grandmother before you found out you were her mother.”
I started crying.
It was the strangest grief I’d ever felt.
I was mourning a daughter I’d never known.
