She took my hand, and I wanted to yank it away, but I knew she hadn’t meant to be so horrible. She’d meant to protect her sister, to protect her nephew-turned-son. And, well, she had. No one could argue that Tilley could have raised a child on her own. She certainly could not have. And Robby had turned out smart and handsome and kind and happy. He had made a great life for himself. What shocked me most of all was my dad going along with it.

“Wait. Does Olivia know?” She gave me a skeptical look. Of course Olivia knew.

“Honey, look. I was scared to death when all this happened, and at that point, I never imagined that I would raise Robby as my own. I just figured we’d have him for a few months until Tilley got over whatever was going on with her and then we would move forward. All of us. But what I didn’t understand was that, from those first days, I was madly in love with that child.”

“Mom…”

“No, Amelia. He was my son. Mine. I didn’t understand how a person could feel that way about a child that wasn’t technically theirs. But it was as natural as breathing, the way he became mine. Until all this 23andMe mess, I never even really thought about it.”

My mouth was hanging open. “So you mean to tell me that people in Cape Carolina just believed that you had hidden away casually and suddenly appeared with a baby no one knew you’d been pregnant with?”

“Oh Lord, no. But then he turned one, and he looked so much like me that the speculation sort of died down. There were new scandals. People forgot. I’m sure every now and then someone talks about it over a game of bridge at the country club. But, by and large, when no new information ever emerged, people just let it go.”

“What about Gran and C-Pop?”

“Well, they knew. They had to. But they were all for it. An unwed daughter with a baby was more than they could take. I swear it bothered them almost as much as her illness.” She laughed lightly. “I know it doesn’t seem like it to you, Amelia, because it isn’t the facts, and the facts are what your life is all about. But my truth is that that little baby boy was my son. And there is nothing that anyone can do to take that away from me. It was the best decision I ever made. Well, that and having you, of course.”

“So that’s why he’s named Robby,” I whispered. “Not after C-Pop. After his father, Robert.”

I knew what she was doing here, and I said so. I gave her credit because it was a super-ballsy move. She had risked the biggest secret she had—at least, I hoped it was her biggest secret—to make me see the truth I hadn’t grasped yet. The gesture meant something to me.

“Look, Amelia, I made my peace a long time ago with the fact that you were going to have a life different from mine. You live the life that you want to live. If that doesn’t include marriage or babies, so be it. I’ll be fine. But don’t walk away from something you really want because you’re afraid. That isn’t the brave girl I raised.”