Elaine came up behind Mark. “Lydia…” she said, her voice full of exhaustion. “You can’t keep doing this.”
Clara recoiled as if she’d been struck. “Lydia? You… you know her name?”
Elaine’s shoulders slumped in defeat. The secret, held for so long, was shattered. There was no way to put the pieces back together now.
The woman—Lydia Harris—simply stood there in the entryway, rainwater puddling at her feet from her soaked sleeves.
“I never abandoned her,” Lydia whispered, her voice barely audible.
Elaine gently guided Clara to the living room couch. Mark sat down heavily on the other side, rubbing his temples as if trying to find the right way to start.
“You were just shy of your second birthday,” Mark began, speaking slowly. “We found you through a children’s shelter. The official paperwork said your birth mother was unstable and couldn’t provide a safe home. We started the adoption process, and the agency told us… they said your birth mother had signed away her rights and didn’t want any future contact.”
“That wasn’t true,” Lydia said, taking a bold step into the house. “I was in a car accident. I was in a coma. For three whole months. By the time I woke up, my baby was gone. The state said she’d been permanently placed. They told me it was too late, that I had failed her.”
Clara just stared, the room feeling like it was tilting on its axis. “So… I wasn’t abandoned?” she asked. “I was taken?”
Lydia nodded, fresh tears streaming down her face. “I’ve been looking for you for years. But I had no money, no help, no way to prove who I was. Everyone I turned to thought I was making it up, that I was delusional. I’m not crazy, Clara. I was just grieving.”
Clara’s mind was racing. It was all clicking into place—the flashes of memory, that half-remembered lullaby, the gentle voice calling her Star. She thought of the faded yellow baby blanket she kept in her closet, the one she’d always felt attached to, even though Mark and Elaine never knew where it came from.
Elaine was crying quietly now. “I should have told you, honey. I was just so scared. You are my daughter, in every way that matters. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”…
