I covered my mouth.
His voice had aged when the recording was made. It sounded like Robert during his final years.
“You are going to learn things about me that will make you angry. You should be angry. I lied to you.”
I closed my eyes.
“I never had an affair with Evelyn.”
Evelyn.
Daniel’s mother, presumably.
“But I let you believe I was traveling for work during periods when I was actually with her and her son.”
My chest tightened.
“Daniel was twelve when I met him. His mother was terrified. She needed help, and because of who was looking for them, I could not bring the truth into our home.”
There was a long pause.
Then Robert said something completely unexpected.
“Daniel is not my biological son.”
I opened my eyes.
“He called me Dad
because, for several years, I was the closest thing he had to one.”
