Claire had barely been home from Europe for twenty minutes when I knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She kept checking her phone and asking if her father was home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, she admitted the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’m pregnant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her father, Thomas, was surprisingly calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Are you happy?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Is Adrian happy?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Very.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas smiled and asked to see a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire showed him a picture of Adrian, then swiped to one of Adrian’s mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That’s Elena,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas froze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His face went pale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“How far along are you?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Almost nine weeks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, without warning, he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You need to terminate the pregnancy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Claire stared at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You just said you were happy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I didn’t know everything then.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What do you know?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He refused to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Claire said she was keeping the baby, Thomas threatened to stop financially supporting her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he locked himself in his study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn’t understand what had happened\u2014until I remembered Elena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twenty-seven years earlier, Thomas had attended a work conference I’d stayed home from. In an old photograph, I recognized Elena among his coworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I overheard something that changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas was arguing with Elena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You had no reason to come back here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is my home.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You agreed to leave this alone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Twenty-seven years ago.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then Thomas said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And now my daughter is pregnant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was Adrian actually Thomas’s son?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If so, Claire and Adrian could be related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I secretly obtained DNA samples and sent them for testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While waiting, I searched Thomas’s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I found was even worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hotel receipts. Jewelry purchases. Flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messages with multiple women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One affair had lasted nearly three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another happened while our son was seriously ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elena wasn’t the only secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was just one of many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I contacted a divorce attorney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I went to see Elena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She admitted she had been with Thomas years ago and had become pregnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there was another man in her life at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had never known who Adrian’s biological father was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three days later, the DNA results arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I opened the report with shaking hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas was not Adrian’s father.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The paternity probability was 0%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I called Claire immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Adrian isn’t your father’s son.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was relieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there was still one person who needed to hear the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I told him I knew about Elena and the affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He tried to explain it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It was a mistake.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he said something that made my decision easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Claire should still end things with Adrian. I don’t want Elena’s son in this family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I looked at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I filed for divorce.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Don’t be ridiculous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I found the hotels, the jewelry, and the messages. I know about the women.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stared at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Who do you honestly think is going to want you now?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a moment, I felt like the insecure young woman I’d been decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I picked up my purse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I don’t need someone else to give me value.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The divorce was difficult, but I rebuilt my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I helped Claire through her pregnancy. Elena and I eventually sat beside her at an ultrasound, watching our grandchild on the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And after almost thirty years of being Thomas’s wife and my children’s mother, I went back to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas had spent years making me believe my life depended on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first time, I was going to find out who Jennifer<\/strong> was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By me.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Claire had barely been home from Europe for twenty minutes when I knew something was wrong. She kept checking her phone and asking if her father was home. Finally, she admitted the truth. “I’m pregnant.” Her father, Thomas, was surprisingly calm. “Are you happy?” “Yes.” “Is Adrian happy?” “Very.” Thomas smiled and asked to see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22112,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22110\/revisions\/22112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}