Mia pulled a paper out of her bag showing the DNA results. She slid it across his desk and waited.

“What is this?”

“I did one of those online DNA tests, you know, just looking for information on where my family originated. They have this feature where you can find extended family members who have also done these DNA tests. Look at this one,” she said, pointing at a line on the paper.

“Sister.” He said it so matter of factly, no question mark at the end.

“Why don’t you seem surprised?”

Carl leaned back against his creaky, leather chair and took off this glasses, rubbing between his eyes. “Well, I never thought this day would come.”

“What are you talking about?”

He stood up and walked over to his file cabinet, an old wooden one you normally didn’t see anymore. He pulled out a drawer and dug out a box in the back. She recognized it. It was one of her mother’s old jewelry boxes, a simple handmade oak one that her grandfather had made for her when she was a girl. Mia hadn’t realized it was missing until now.

“Is that my Momma’s?”

He sat back down and put his hands on top of it. “Yes, it is.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Many years ago, your mother came to me and told me that she had another daughter, about three years older than you. She wanted to find her, but she didn’t really have the means for hiring a private investigator or anything.”

“You must be mistaken, Carl. Momma would’ve told me I had a sister. I always wanted a sibling. I complained about it all the time,” she said, smiling.

“I know this is hard, sweetie, but you do have a sister. And now it’s right here in black and white.”

She stared at him and then back down at the paper. “Why would she do this? Why didn’t she tell me? Why did she give her away? I don’t understand any of this.” With a history of anxiety and panic attacks, Mia did her best to take long, deep breaths. The last thing she needed was a mental breakdown right in the middle of Carl’s office.

“She was just a kid herself, Mia. At seventeen years old, she wasn’t able to take care of a child. I suppose she did what she thought was best for the baby.”

“Momma couldn’t have given a baby away. She loved being a mother. I don’t know what to think.”

Carl cleared his throat. “There’s something else, Mia.”

“There’s more? I don’t know if I can take any more.”

He opened the box and pulled out an envelope. “Your mother asked me to keep this for her in the event that her daughter ever found you. She wanted me to read it to the both of you. Together.”