My little worries suddenly seemed extremely trite. “Mom, my God,” I said, sounding as furious as I felt. “How could you do that?”

“Don’t come at me,” she said, getting defensive. “You have no idea what I have been through,” she practically hissed. “At first, I was just helping her out, keeping him until she could get back on her feet. But as the weeks turned to months and the months to years, he became a part of me.”

I shook my head. “For God’s sake, Mother. He is her child.”

She gave me the stoniest look I’d ever seen and said, “He is not. Robby is my child. And that’s what you might never get the chance to understand. I didn’t carry him or give birth to him. I didn’t know what to do with a baby. But once I was the one taking care of him, rocking him to sleep at night, staying up when he had a fever, when I was the one he called ‘mama’…” She trailed off, wiping her eyes. “I wasn’t trying to take him away from my sister, but that boy deserved a stable home; he deserved a mother who didn’t think she was Queen Elizabeth ninety percent of the time. I could give him that, and so I did.”

The way she said it, it seemed so simple. So logical. But it was anything but. I had thought it was Tilley all this time, but maybe my mother was the crazy one.

“God, Amelia. You can’t imagine it. All the doctors, all the treatments, all the medications, all the false hope, all these years and years that I’ve tried to bring her back…”

Tears gathered in my eyes. For me, Aunt Tilley had just always been. I’d never really considered the toll that all of this had taken on my poor mother, as embarrassed as I am to admit it.

She cleared her throat and composed herself. “That’s why Tilley has always lived with us. She couldn’t take care of Robby, but I didn’t want her to have to be without him. She gave me the most important gift I have ever received—besides you.”

“Wait. Robby knows, right?”

She bit her lip but didn’t say a word.

“Oh my God, Mom.” I got up, pacing up and down the dock. “Are you kidding me? My brother doesn’t know that you and Dad aren’t his parents? I mean, am I your real kid?” In that moment, I almost wished that she would say no.

“You’re being so dramatic, Amelia. Sit down.”

I laughed. “Dramatic? I’m being dramatic? I just found out my brother isn’t even my brother!” I shout-whispered.

“Don’t you ever say that again,” she said, low and mean. She meant it.

I sighed and sat back down. “Don’t you worry about it coming out?”

“Oh, I worry about it every day.”

“And?”

“And I just hope I’m dead when they figure it out.”

I was so exasperated now. “So that’s your grand plan? Hope you’re dead? Good Lord, Mother.” I was up and pacing again. “Why would you even tell me this? I wish I didn’t know. I’m never going to be able to be normal around Robby again.”