“When you recommended Rebecca to me,” he said, “you did something you could not have known the full weight of.”
He paused.
“Rebecca is my daughter, Grace. I did not know it when she arrived. She did not know it when she arrived. But it is the truth, and it has been confirmed, and I want you to hear it from me.”
Grace stared at him.
She looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca looked back at her, steady and calm.
“Your…” Grace started, then stopped. Her eyes went wide. She pressed 1 hand over her mouth and sat there for a long moment with her eyes moving back and forth between the 2 of them. “Your daughter?”
“Yes,” Mr. Caleb said.
“Rebecca,” Grace breathed. She turned to her. “Did you know? Did you, when I brought you here? Did you?”
“No,” Rebecca said. “I had no idea. Not when I came. Not for the first 2 weeks.” She held Grace’s gaze. “I found out the same way you’re finding out now. 1 piece at a time until there was enough to be certain.”
Grace took her hand slowly from her mouth. She looked at the container of food she had set on the table. She looked at the ceiling. She made a sound that was not quite a laugh and not quite a cry, but something between the 2.