Carol’s hand tightened around mine as the hospital monitors hummed beside her bed. After 36 years of marriage, my terminally ill wife had only days left, yet her final request concerned a woman I had not seen since 1985. “Find Anna,” she whispered. “You’ll understand everything when you see her—and please forgive me.” Anna was my first love, the woman who had rejected my proposal in a letter before I left Millfield. I asked Carol what she had done, but a nurse entered before she could answer.
Three days later, my wife died, leaving me with her wedding ring, an empty house, and a promise I could not ignore.After weeks of searching, I found Anna living four hours away in Pittsburgh. Her hair was silver, but her green eyes looked strangely familiar. When I mentioned
Carol’s request, she invited me inside and revealed that she had never willingly
abandoned me. My mother, Ruth, had threatened Anna’s struggling family and
ordered her to disappear because she considered her unsuitable. Anna then told
me she had been pregnant with my E child, but Ruth convinced her that I had
chosen Carol and wanted nothing to do with the baby. Before I could absorb
that, Anna delivered another blow: Carol had overheard Ruth’s threats and
remained silent-and that was only the beginning of what my wife had hidden.