When I Was Four, My Mother Left Me Alone in a Church—Twenty Years Later She Returned Crying, “We Need You”

“How long?”

I asked.

“What?”

“How long did you ask for me?”

Leo’s face crumpled.

“For years.”

I wanted to believe him.

That frightened me.

PART 17 — WHAT THEY TOLD LEO LATER

When Leo was twelve, our parents told him I had been adopted.