I turned them down because I knew you were coming home.”
I read that phrase twice.
Then came the lines that finally explained why my mother had stopped at that door 20 years earlier.
“I knew you, Aaron, I knew that if I left those babies in your arms, you would never let them go.
And if you took them, I could leave knowing that they were with someone I trusted without having to stay enough to fix it myself.
I told myself that I only needed time to overcome my grief. Then the months passed, I met someone, and starting over became easier than admitting what I had done to all of you.”
I stopped reading.
For 20 years, she had believed that Mom had left because the grief and three newborns had finally broken her.
Now I understood something uglier.
He had not limited himself to getting away from the triplets.
