“I didn’t know what to think.”
“The doctor told you twins can happen in either family. You knew that. You chose not to believe it.”
He rubbed his forehead. “I was overwhelmed.”
“What else is in there?”
“So was I. I was carrying two babies and trying to get through every day with my husband looking at me like I’d betrayed him.”
Grandma adjusted the baby in her arms. “You can be frightened and still be responsible for what you say.”
Archie glanced at the children, then back at the envelope. “What else is in there?”
“Something I found at Grandma’s house,” I said. “A photograph and a letter from Alice.”
His hand hovered over the envelope but didn’t reach inside.
“This was taken in Japan?”
“What do they have to do with this?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “But I think you should see them.”
For a moment, none of us moved. Then Archie looked at me.
“Show me.”
I took the photograph from the envelope and handed it to Archie.
He unfolded it. “This was taken in Japan?”
Archie looked at me.
“The place and date are written on the back.”
He turned it over. His eyes moved across the inscription, then back to the photograph. Alice stood beside a Japanese man in a garden, close enough that their shoulders almost touched.
Grandma leaned in. “That’s Alice.”
I handed her the letter. “I found it with the photograph. I read it, but I didn’t want to tell you what it said before you could see it.”
“That’s Alice.”
Her fingers shook as she opened it. She read silently, stopped, then began again.
“‘Our daughter,'” she whispered.
Archie looked at her. “Grandma…”
“She says she returned to her husband and would raise their daughter with him.” Grandma lowered the letter. “That daughter was me.”
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