marked “Mother.”
I must’ve read the birth certificate 10 times before I spoke.
“This can’t be real.”
“It is,” Anna replied.
“But my mother’s name was Laura.”
“This can’t be real.”
Anna shook her head.
“There was no Laura.”
I laughed, but nothing was funny.
“Are you telling me that my dad invented a dead woman?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Anna looked at the yellow gift.
“Can we sit down?”
“There was no Laura.”
We moved inside and sat at my dining table.
I put the birth certificate between us.
“Start at the beginning.”
She nodded.
“I met your father when I was 22. Your father was three years older.”
They dated for about a year, and during that time, Anna became pregnant.
Being young, Richard panicked.
His parents were well-off and very involved in his life, while Anna came from a working-class family and was taking classes while working part-time.
Richard
