The Promise He Kept From Me

He was wearing a striped shirt with a small stain near the collar.

He looked like a child who had just been called in from playing and hadn’t quite stopped moving yet.

He looked exactly like Mark.

“I need to sit down,” I said.

The doctor led me to a small waiting area off the main corridor.

Two chairs, a low table, a window that looked onto a concrete wall.

He brought me a cup of water I didn’t drink.

“Is there someone I can call for you?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

He nodded and left me alone.

I sat with the letter in my lap and the photograph face-up on the table.

I looked at Daniel’s squinting face.

I looked at my own hands resting on my stomach, where our daughter had gone quiet.

Mark had a son.

He had known for five years and said nothing.

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