That hurt more than I expected.
“No, sweetheart. I didn’t.”
Daniel had not only lied to me.
He had allowed Isla to believe that I knew she existed and had agreed to keep her away from her brothers.
I stepped back when Daniel reached toward me.
“You’re not coming home tonight.”
“Megan, the boys need me.”
“They need honesty more.”
For once, Daniel didn’t get to decide when I was ready for the truth.
The next morning, I asked him to come over.
My mother stayed upstairs with the twins.
“Start at the beginning,” I said.
Daniel finally told me everything.
He and Esme had been nineteen when Isla was born.
His parents believed becoming a father would ruin his future.
They pressured him into signing an agreement that removed him from Isla’s daily life.
Daniel sent letters anyway.
Eventually, he believed Esme wanted him gone.
Years passed.
Then five months earlier, after Esme died, Isla found his letters and contact information.
She reached out.
Daniel panicked.
He was preparing for the birth of Kai and Theo and suddenly faced the daughter he had spent seventeen years trying not to think about.
“I was ashamed,” he admitted.
“You still chose to hide her.”
“I didn’t know how to bring seventeen years of mistakes into our house.”
“You start by telling the truth.”
He looked toward the stairs where the twins were sleeping.
“What happens now?”
I gave him an answer he didn’t expect.
“Bring Isla here tomorrow.”
PART 3
Daniel stared at me.
“Megan, are you sure?”
“I’m not forgiving you.”
I paused.
“But Isla isn’t going to pay for your choices.”
The next afternoon, Daniel brought her to our house.
Isla stopped inside the doorway when Theo began crying.
She looked nervous.
“Can I hold him?”
I gently placed Theo into her arms and showed her how to support his head.
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
Within an hour, she was sitting between the twins’ cribs learning everything about them.
Kai always kicked off his blanket.
Theo disliked the stuffed fox.
One settled faster when someone hummed.
The other loved being carried near the window.
Daniel watched from the hallway.
I turned toward him.
“Don’t confuse my kindness toward Isla with forgiveness for you.”