The letter began:
*My darling Amelia, if you are reading this, then Walter has decided you are ready for a truth I was too afraid to tell you while I was alive.*
I stopped breathing.
I looked toward Grandpa.
He nodded.
Keep reading.
The next lines didn’t make sense.
Until suddenly, they made far too much sense.
I read them twice.
“No.”
Mom covered her mouth.
Ava whispered, “What does it say?”
I couldn’t speak.
Grandpa answered.
“Amelia is not your sister.”
Ava frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Grandpa looked at me.
Then at Mom.
“Amelia is your aunt.”
The world vanished.
I laughed once.
A short, broken sound.
“That’s impossible.”
Grandpa’s eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
He pointed to Grandma’s photograph.
“Your grandmother had another daughter.”
I stared at Mom.
She was sobbing now.
Not my mother.
The woman I’d called Mom.
