“Whoa...” He shook his head.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Sure, I do. I just don’t believe they kept something that important from you.”

“Well, they kept it from everybody. Although now when I look back on my conversation with Claire Durant, I’m sure she realized the truth the moment I told her I was Wendy’s sister. She seemed genuinely taken aback when I introduced myself. I guess it was like seeing Sean Riley again, only in drag. And I bet she thought I was there to discover my father’s identity.”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No, she gave me the yearbook. Maybe she thought I’d find whatever I needed to on the pages. And if I didn’t? Maybe I didn’t really want to know.”

“Maybe she wanted you to realize it slowly.”

“Now everything’s coming together. Yesterday Ella told me she knew all about my special relationship with Wendy. I thought she meant we were sisters, so of course, I couldn’t be objective. But no, she knew the truth. And how many other people do? The fact that Wendy only rarely came to Seabank and never went out with old friends or introduced me to them? The fact that my parents moved across town and sent me to a private school instead of Seabank High?”

I rested my face in my hands, and Teo put his arm around me. “Take a deep breath. There’s a lot to think through.”

I was crying, and I hadn’t even realized it.

“It’s too early to point this out,” he said, “but I’m going to anyway. Your mom and dad kept you. They raised you. They wanted you.”

“My grandparents, you mean? What else were they going to do, leave me by the side of the road after Wendy gave birth? They aren’t the kind of people who let others carry their burdens.”

“Has anyone ever said you were a burden?”

I was too wrought up to think clearly. “They certainly never saw me the way they saw Wendy. She was the child they’d dreamed of having, and I was the one who came along too late to waste energy on.”

“Ryan, do you know how many people want to adopt a baby? It would have been easy for them to find a good home for you, one with any attributes they wanted. Heck, look how cute you turned out.”

I turned to blast him for making a joke, and saw how much he cared. He was trying to make me smile, or at least stop crying. I cried harder.

He drew me into his arms. “You are something else, lady. No matter who your mother is. Nothing about you has changed except the circumstances of your birth.”

I cried on his shoulder. “Holly...and Noelle are my sisters.”

“Technically half sisters, only they aren’t.”

“What does that mean?”

“Ryan, your parents are your parents, and your sister is your sister. The girls are your nieces. You are their aunt. The only thing that changed is who gave birth to you. Not who raised you, loved you, made sure you got all the surgery you needed and stayed in the hospital while you did. Not who saw you all the way through college, even when you were probably a pain in the ass. Dale and Arlie love you. They consider you their daughter. I’m an outside observer, but I’ve seen it up close. Maybe raising you was a little harder than raising Wendy. They were ready to start a different kind of life, but apparently not ready enough. Because they became parents again, told the world you were theirs and treated you like you were.”