had found him near the dumping ground several days later. He showed her the adoption papers and the hospital photograph.
She knew immediately who he was.
“Why didn’t she bring you inside?” I asked.
“Because you had just lost your father. She thought telling you she had another child would make you believe your whole life had been a lie.”
“She let me believe something worse.”
“I know.”
The apple pie returned to me with painful clarity.
Her anger.
The way she had said, “Never speak about him that way.”
“She was defending her son,” I said.
Dorian lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
I stood and walked to the window.
“You knew all these years?”
“Not at first. She told me the truth the day she found me. But she asked me to give her time.”
“Twenty years is not time. It’s a life.”
“I asked her to tell you more
