Britta stared up at the day clock on the wall and squirmed on the wood bench across the table from Susie. She seemed uneasy. “Before I left Missouri, Mamma said I should be the one to talk to you ’bout this.”

So did Mamma discuss this with Britta? Susie studied her sister. “Are ya worried, maybe, how all this could affect your friendship with Hazel? Or, maybe, Roy?”

Britta locked eyes with her, seemingly speechless at first. “Do you think it could?” She paused, eyes wide.

Susie could see that Britta was both baffled and hurt. “Ach, I didn’t mean to—”

“Nee, maybe it’s best that we do get this out in the open,” Britta said, tears brimming. “I just didn’t know how to bring it up.” She took a deep breath. “Honestly, I needed time to think things through.” She sighed again.

Confused, Susie reached for her coffee cup and took a sip.

Slowly, falteringly, Britta began to tell Susie that the driver who hit Eli had come to visit Mamma more than a year later to confess her crime. “Mamma never told either of us.”

Susie gasped and realized that she and Britta had been mistakenly talking about two very different things. “The hit-and-run driver came here . . . to see Mamma?” Susie could hardly voice the words.

Britta nodded. “Jah, and Mamma not only forgave the woman when she confessed, but she offered to keep her newborn baby while she served her time in jail.” Britta stopped for a moment to brush tears away. “And . . . that baby was me.”

“Wha-at?” Susie’s hand flew to her chest as she tried to comprehend what Britta had just said. “I don’t understand.”

“Remember the name you saw on the birth certificate—Kathleen Stratton?” Britta asked.

Susie was still struggling to make sense of all this. “I remember.”

“Honestly, Mamma said she only decided to reveal this now since I’ve been so miserable,” Britta said. “And I think it worried her when she became so sick.”

“It made sense to tell ya while you were out there visiting,” Susie managed to say, head still swimming.

“That’s what Mamma said.” Britta began to share that Kathleen had eventually returned for her but couldn’t bring herself to take Britta away from the only mother she knew. “The bond ’tween Mamma and me was so strong by then. . . .”

Susie fought hard not to stare at her. “I don’t know what to say. This just doesn’t even seem possible.”

“I know,” Britta replied. “I lost nearly a night of sleep after Mamma told me.”

There was an awkward pause between them as Susie tried to get it through her head that Britta’s birth mother had been the one driving that terrible night. She killed Eli!

“You’ll have to excuse me,” Susie said, getting up suddenly.

Britta rose to her feet. “You okay?”