I stared.
“Grandma had a sister?”
“Half-sister.”
“Nobody ever mentioned her.”
“They were estranged for decades.”
“Why?”
Nathaniel looked toward the closed office door.
“Because Elaine claimed your grandfather was the biological father of her child.”
My breath caught.
“Whose child?”
He did not answer immediately.
He didn’t need to.
My mind reached the possibility before his mouth did.
“No.”
“Sylvie.”
“No.”
“Elaine Mercer gave birth to a boy in 1961.”
I stood.
“No.”
“His name was Robert.”
The room went silent.
“My father?”
Nathaniel nodded.
My father was not Grandma Opal’s biological son.
I could not understand the sentence.
It felt grammatically possible and emotionally impossible.
Nathaniel explained.
