That was where I saw Isla.
And heard her call my husband Dad.
PART 2
Daniel stepped toward me.
“Megan, please let me explain.”
I pointed toward the photographs Isla was holding.
“You brought her pictures of Kai and Theo.”
Daniel nodded.
“She’s their sister.”
That word hurt more than the affair I had imagined.
I turned toward Isla.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
Then I looked at Daniel.
“You have a seventeen-year-old daughter, and you never told me?”
He lowered his eyes.
“I was nineteen when she was born.”
Beside the oak tree stood a memorial plaque bearing the name Esme.
Isla’s mother.
She had died seven months earlier.
Daniel explained that when Isla was born, his parents had strongly pressured him to stay away.
They told him Esme wanted nothing from him and convinced him that leaving would protect everyone’s future.
But Isla interrupted.
“My mom kept his letters.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What?”
“All of them. She gave them to me before she died.”
So Daniel had written to Esme and Isla.
And Esme had never destroyed those letters.
The story Daniel’s parents had told him all those years ago was not the complete truth.
But another problem remained.
“When did Isla contact you?” I asked.
Daniel hesitated.
Isla answered.
“Before the twins were born.”
I stared at him.
“You knew while I was pregnant?”
“I didn’t answer her immediately.”
“When did you?”
“After Kai and Theo came home.”
I felt anger rise inside me.
While I was recovering from childbirth and trying to care for two newborns, Daniel had been secretly meeting a daughter I didn’t know existed.
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he said.
“You mean you didn’t want to tell me.”
“You were overwhelmed.”
There it was again.
My exhaustion.
My recovery.
Our babies.
Every time the truth became uncomfortable, Daniel used my condition as an excuse to hide it.
I turned toward Isla.
“What was the money for?”
She looked embarrassed.
“Bills. After Mom died, I needed help. I didn’t know he was taking it from your emergency account.”
“I believe you.”
Daniel looked up.
“Helping your daughter wasn’t the betrayal,” I said. “Hiding her and taking money without telling me was.”
Isla’s eyes filled with tears.
“I thought you knew about me.”
That hurt more than I expected.
“No, sweetheart. I didn’t.”
Daniel had not only lied to me.
He had allowed Isla to believe that I knew she existed and had agreed to keep her away from her brothers.
I stepped back when Daniel reached toward me.
“You’re not coming home tonight.”
“Megan, the boys need me.”
“They need honesty more.”
For once, Daniel didn’t get to decide when I was ready for the truth.
The next morning, I asked him to come over.
My mother stayed upstairs with the twins.
“Start at the beginning,” I said.
Daniel finally told me everything.
He and Esme had been nineteen when Isla was born.
His parents believed becoming a father would ruin his future.
They pressured him into signing an agreement that removed him from Isla’s daily life.
Daniel sent letters anyway.
Eventually, he believed Esme wanted him gone.
Years passed.
Then five months earlier, after Esme died, Isla found his letters and contact information.
She reached out.
Daniel panicked.
He was preparing for the birth of Kai and Theo and suddenly faced the daughter he had spent seventeen years trying not to think about.
