“He is not the only child they took from us.”
Daniel looked just as confused as I was.
My mother, however, looked terrified.
“Mom,” I said. “What does that mean?”
She backed away from us.
Laura suddenly reached into her bag and pulled out a second photograph.
This one was older.
It showed my mother lying in a hospital bed shortly after giving birth.
My father stood beside her.
And in the nurse’s arms were not two babies.
There were three.
I felt my stomach turn.
“Triplets?” Daniel whispered.
My mother covered her mouth and began to cry.
“Yes.”
Nobody moved.
She finally admitted the truth.
She had given birth to three boys.
The doctors told her two of them had died before she ever got to hold them.
She believed them.
My father didn’t.
Years later, he discovered Daniel was alive.
But he never found the third child.
Until six months before his death.
That was why he had been disappearing every Thursday.
That was why there were unexplained withdrawals from his bank account.
He had found our third brother.
And apparently, our brother had known about us for years.
“Where is he?” I asked.
Laura looked toward the cemetery entrance.
A black car had just pulled up.
A tall man stepped out.
He was dressed in a dark suit and carried no umbrella despite the rain.
When he got closer, I stopped breathing.
He looked like me.
Not similar.
Almost identical.
My mother whispered his name before anyone introduced him.
“Ethan…”
The man stared at her coldly.
“So you do remember me.”
My mother nearly collapsed.
Daniel stepped forward.
“You’re our brother?”
Ethan gave a bitter laugh.
“That’s what your father wanted you to believe.”
Then he pulled a folder from inside his coat.
“I came here because there’s something all of you deserve to know.”
He handed the folder to me.
Inside was another DNA report.
I expected it to confirm that Ethan was our brother.
It didn’t.
According to the report, Ethan was related to Daniel.
He was related to my mother.
But he had no biological connection to my father.
I looked up.
“What does this mean?”
Ethan stared directly at my mother.
“You want to tell them?”
She shook her head violently.
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“Fine. I will.”
He pointed toward my father’s coffin.
“The man you buried today wasn’t your biological father.”
Daniel froze.
I couldn’t speak.
Then Ethan delivered the sentence that destroyed everything I thought I knew about my family.
“And your real father is standing at this funeral right now.”
