Chapter 11 - Roland remembers the summer
My father finally told me what he knew.
Claire worked at Carter Equestrian the summer she became pregnant.
He did not know immediately.
My mother Marianne did.
Claire wore oversized shirts.
Stopped riding.
Cried one afternoon in the tack room.
Marianne found her.
Claire said:
“My family says I have to give him away.”
“Him?”
“She knew it was a boy.”
Roland had been twenty-seven.
Working for his father.
Newly married to Marianne.
He remembered Claire because Marianne became worried.
“She wanted us to help her.”
“Did you?”
“We tried.”
“How?”
“My father’s lawyer gave her the number of a legal-aid office.”
“What happened?”
“Her mother found out.”
Bernice Hayes threatened to call police and accuse the Carters of interfering with a minor.
Legally, Claire was still sixteen.
The Carters backed away from direct involvement but told Claire she could contact them.
Then the maternity residence moved her.
No address given to Roland.
Marianne wrote letters through the facility.
Some delivered.
Some returned.
The horse bracelet had been a gift from Marianne.
My mother.
Suddenly the object Megan picked up had another history.
Not just Claire’s.
Mine.
My mother had known the girl in that photograph.
And never told me.
Why?
Because by the time I was old enough to understand, Claire was gone.
Life moved.
May you like
Secrets survive partly because people eventually stop asking questions.
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