She moved into it slowly. “My plan was to go down to Mexico for the final trimester. I told everybody we were going to travel together for a few weeks, that once Wendy went off to college, she would be off to new and fabulous things without me. So I packed my suitcases and flew to Mérida, in the Yucatán, where Wendy joined me. It was remote enough we were sure she wouldn’t run into anybody we knew, and they had an excellent hospital and medical care.”

“And the adoption?”

“We set that up ahead of time with a Catholic agency.” She gave the tiniest smile. “You were in high demand. Wendy chose your new family from half a dozen possibilities.”

“Is that supposed to make me happy?”

She began to flip the cover of the yearbook back and forth, until she realized what she was doing and folded her hands. “We moved into an apartment near the hospital. We’d planned to do some light travel, but she wasn’t feeling well, so we stayed put. And then, just a month after I got there, she went into labor.”

“The problem baby.”

“You had problems, yes, far too many problems. You were so tiny, and so terribly sick. The hospital was good, but, in my opinion, no hospital would have been good enough. Unfortunately, you were much too sick to move, so we had to stay in Mérida. You needed surgery right away. And, of course, an adoption was out of the question while we waited to see if you pulled through. After all the trauma around the pregnancy, Wendy was mentally exhausted. She was finished with her part and anxious to go back to the US. So we spoke to the dean of the college where she’d been accepted, and we were told she could attend the second semester.”

“She went off to college and left you behind?”

“Your sister distanced herself. From the beginning she realized she wasn’t going to keep you, and she didn’t want to watch you struggle.”

By now I was beginning to see. “You had already told people back in the States that you’d gone to a doctor in Mexico, found you were not only pregnant but pretty far along.”

“A change of life baby, yes. And I told them the pregnancy was high risk, so when I came home with empty arms, no one would question it. It was all an excuse for staying long enough to see Wendy’s real pregnancy to conclusion. If things had gone as they should have, after the birth Wendy and I would have seen you safely to your new parents and flown home together.”

“Why this elaborate charade? Why not just leave me there and call once in a while to see if I made it?”

“Wendy flew back and started school, and I stayed with you. At first I told myself I had to be there to make sure you got the best care until you were well enough to meet your new family. But even when you started to improve, the couple refused to come to Mexico and see you. Of course that set me wondering how committed they were. Your father flew down whenever he could, and after a month he flew in a pediatric cardiac surgeon for your second surgery. It was touch and go, but finally, after two months, it looked like you really were going to make it.”