I didn’t even know when the people next door moved in. The father and daughter didn’t say anything. There’s nothing weird. But when I saw Lily, his daughter, playing with my daughter for the first time, my heart skipped a beat.
Emma and Lily were whirling about in our yard and laughing like they had known each other for a long time. The sun made their golden hair shine, which made their dimples and upturned noses stand out. They seemed like they may be twins. If Emma weren’t a little taller, I might have believed they were the same person.
I could feel Jack walk up to me. “Hey, Heather?” Are you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.
I forced myself to grin. “Just thinking.”
But I felt a wave of doubt wash over me. What were the odds? There was no way to deny how alike they were. I started to wonder if Jack had cheated. Was Lily his kid?
That night, I sat and gazed at Emma’s baby pictures, expecting to find answers in her tiny face. Jack came over to me and asked what I was up to. I said, “Just remembering,” and swiftly shut the album.
He didn’t push, but the silence between us got worse every day.
I started to really pay attention to them. It felt like a dagger digging deeper every time Lily smiled at Jack. Every time I brought up the neighbors, he looked uncomfortable and changed the conversation. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I just went out one night and inquired. “Jack, is Lily your daughter?
He paused. He uttered it in a whisper. “What?”
“Don’t lie to me.” She looks a much like Emma. And you’ve been distant ever since they moved in.
He got up and ran his hands through his hair. “I swear, Heather, I never cheated on you.”
“Then why do you have to keep things secret?”
He got up and said, “I can’t do this right now.”
“Please don’t leave me!”
But he did.
He was gone by dawn. There was a note on the nightstand that said, “I left for work early.” We’ll talk later.
I didn’t wait. I told Emma to play with Lily, and then I went straight to our neighbor’s door.
When I got there, Ryan grinned at me. “Hey, Heather! There are girls in the back.
“I really came here to talk,” I said as I went in. As he called the women, I gazed around the house. There were framed images of Ryan’s dark features on the walls. Lily stood out like the light in the dark.
There are no photos of her mother.
I went upstairs for some reason. There was a big image of a blonde woman on the wall that I saw. I didn’t like the way her face looked.
“Is that Lily’s mom?” I asked when Ryan got there.
He appeared astonished at first, but then he slowly nodded. “Yes.” That’s Mary.
“Where is she?”
“She died last year.”
I gave it some thinking. “Is Jack Lily’s father?”
Ryan was shocked. “No.” God, no. Did he not say?
“No. Nothing.”
He sighed and urged me to sit down. “You have the right to know.”
After that, he told me the truth.
“Jack and Mary were brother and sister,” he continued. “Mary was his younger sister.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“She had a lot of problems.” Their parents didn’t want to talk to her or do anything with her. Jack was the only one who stayed with her. After she died, I brought Lily home so she could be with her sole living relatives.
I sat in startled silence as the truth hit me. There was no cheating that led to Lily. She was Jack’s niece. Jack had secluded his niece Lily from the rest of the family because he felt bad and sad.
Jack’s car drove up the driveway at that moment. I said thank you to Ryan and ran home.
He was in the kitchen, looking out the window at the girls.
He said “Heather” in a low voice. “I need to talk to you—”
“I already know,” I said. “About Mary.” Lily is
His eyes were full of tears as he nodded. “I didn’t know how to say it.” I let Mary down. I didn’t give her back her last letter. I felt bad that I thought helping Lily would fix everything. And I was afraid you would believe the worse.
I held his hand and said, “You don’t have to do this by yourself.” “I’m your wife.” I would have gotten it if you had trusted me.
He looked at me with both relief and regret.
We chatted for hours about the sadness, the past, and everything else we hadn’t said. He told me about the sister he couldn’t save, the parents who turned their backs, and the niece he was just starting to love.
The girls came in with red cheeks and smiles, and the house felt different. Not as heavy. It seemed like a burden had been taken off.
They still looked like twins. But the fact that they were so similar made no one doubt. It improved things.
Two women who didn’t know about their difficult past were tied by love, not blood. I couldn’t hear them laughing anymore.
It made me better.
