I’d never seen her before.
She looked incredibly young.
So did Adrian in the photograph beside her.
He explained the past he had believed for twenty-five years.
Tessa became pregnant during senior year. Her parents despised Adrian and refused to let their daughter raise a child with an eighteen-year-old who had no money or plan.
Tessa told him she had chosen adoption.
There were meetings.
Documents.
Adults speaking over him.
Then she moved away with her family.
Adrian said he twice tried to learn where the baby had gone. Tessa’s father threatened legal action and said the adoption was closed.
Eventually, Adrian stopped searching.
What he never knew was that Tessa had changed her mind.
She kept Maren.
And apparently decided Adrian belonged in the past.
“Did you know she existed when we met?” I asked.
“No.”
“Did you know when we married?”
“No.”
I studied him.
I believed both answers.
That wasn’t the problem.
“What happened four months ago?”
Adrian swallowed.
He drove to Indianapolis to meet Maren.
She was already pregnant.
