I started thinking that he might be seriously ill and that the envelope contained his will. Then I noticed that his friends kept
avoiding eye contact with me. We ordered our food, but I couldn’t swallow a single bite.
The men spoke about their younger years. Occasionally, they mentioned a woman named Laura, but whenever her name
came up, my father tensed. Laura was my mother’s name.
“You really do look like her,” Robert finally said.
“Did you know my mother well?”
He was about to answer when my father interrupted him.
“We didn’t come here to talk about her.”
“Then why did we come here?” I asked. “What are all of you hiding from me?”
No one answered. A few minutes later, my father received a phone call and stepped away from the table. The moment he
walked onto the balcony, Robert leaned toward me.
“Listen carefully. Whatever you learn tonight, don’t judge him until you’ve heard the entire story.”
“Why? What did he do?”
Robert glanced toward my father.
“Twenty-two years ago, he made all of us promise that you would never learn about that night.”
“What night?”
“The night your mother placed the baby in his arms and told him she would never return.”
I stopped breathing.
“What are you talking about? I was told my mother died.”
Robert’s expression changed. He seemed to realize that he had already said too much. At that moment, my father returned.
I abruptly stood up.
“My mother gave you a baby and disappeared? Has she been alive this entire time?”
My father said nothing. His silence felt like an answer. I grabbed my bag.
“You’ve lied to me my entire life.”
