Skip to content He leaned back.
“You loved me. I know that. But loving me didn’t give you the right to decide forever what I was allowed to know about myself.”
Carol started crying again.
“I know.”
Then Darren looked at the medical papers.
This time, he didn’t comfort her.
And I think that mattered.
Then Darren looked at the medical papers.
“What exactly runs in the family?”
Ruth explained that several relatives had been monitored for an inherited vascular disorder. The oval marks sometimes appeared in relatives who had it, but not always, and the mark alone did not mean Lily was sick.
Then Lily made a small noise from her carrier.
“I would’ve told you if I’d known you were looking for me,” Ruth said.
Darren looked at Carol.
She lowered her eyes.
Then Lily made a small noise from her carrier.
Ruth turned.
Then she saw the mark.
“Can I see her?”
I lifted Lily carefully.
Ruth smiled.
Then she saw the mark.
She stopped.
For half a second, I felt the same fear I’d seen on Carol’s face in the hospital.
She rolled up her sleeve.
Then Ruth laughed through tears.
“Of course.”
She rolled up her sleeve.
There it was.
The same oval birthmark.
Same place.
For the first time since Carol’s confession, his face softened.
Same shape.
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