Whenever she had nightmares, Mom sat beside her until morning.
Meanwhile, I lay awake on the other side of the wall, furious that a stranger had somehow become more important than me.
Once, I heard them whispering behind Mom’s locked bedroom door.
« What if she finds out someday? » Tessa said.
« Not from us, » Mom replied sharply.
« She can never know. »
When I confronted them, Mom insisted they had only been discussing Tessa’s adoption papers.
I didn’t believe her.
The secrets between them never stopped.
Whenever I stepped into a room, they fell silent, and when they thought I was asleep, they often stayed up whispering in the kitchen.
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