The first thing I saw inside the box was a yellow baby sweater.
\nI knew it at once. Hannah had knitted it during the last weeks of her pregnancy, sitting beside me on the sofa with her feet propped up and a ball of yarn rolling across the floor.
\n\u201cShe\u2019ll wear it home,\u201d she\u2019d said, holding the tiny sleeves against her stomach.
\nAudrey never wore it. After Hannah died, I couldn\u2019t bear to look at anything she\u2019d made.
\nI lifted the sweater from the box. Beneath it were fifteen envelopes tied together with blue ribbon. Each had a number on the front, written in Hannah\u2019s careful handwriting.
\nOne. Two. Three.
\nAll the way to fifteen.
\nI pressed a hand to my mouth. Hannah had written to her daughter for birthdays she expected to celebrate with her. She had planned so far ahead while I\u2019d been worrying about whether we had enough diapers.
\nAt the bottom of the box lay a photograph. Hannah stood in the sunlight outside a diner, one hand resting on her pregnant belly. A young man stood beside her, smiling directly at the camera.
\nIt wasn\u2019t Mark.
\nMark was the boyfriend who had come to the hospital, held Audrey for a few minutes, and left a week later. I\u2019d believed him when he said he was Audrey\u2019s father. Hannah had never given me a reason to doubt it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I turned the photograph over. <\/p>\n Daniel knew about the baby. He was thrilled when we found out she was a girl. But a few weeks later, something happened between us, and I told him to stay away. I told you Mark was the father because I couldn\u2019t bear to explain what I\u2019d done.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cIs that Mom\u2019s?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWhat does it say?\u201d I asked. The first thing I saw inside the box was a yellow baby sweater. I knew it at once. Hannah had knitted it during the last weeks of her pregnancy, sitting … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aita","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7487,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7480\/revisions\/7487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echostoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe day we told Daniel about Audrey.<\/em>
\nFor a long moment, I could only stare at the name.
\nI\u2019d heard Hannah mention Daniel once or twice before she was pregnant. Then she stopped. Whenever I asked about him, she changed the subject, and I assumed they\u2019d broken up. Now I was looking at him with his arm around her and joy written all over his face.
\nUnder the photograph was a smaller envelope addressed to me.
\nMom, please read this before you give Audrey her letters.<\/em>
\nI broke the seal with my thumb.
\nMom, I should have told you sooner. Mark isn\u2019t Audrey\u2019s father. Daniel is.<\/em>
\nI read the sentence again, hoping I had misunderstood it.<\/p>\n
\nMy chest tightened.
\nI\u2019m going to tell you everything when we come home from the hospital. I promise. If I don\u2019t get that chance, please give Audrey these letters when she\u2019s old enough. And please find Daniel. He needs to know she was born.<\/em>
\nThe letter ended there. No explanation of what had happened. No address for Daniel. Just Hannah\u2019s name at the bottom, followed by a small, crooked heart.
\nI sat on the closet floor with the paper trembling in my hands.
\nFor fifteen years, I had told Audrey that her father left because he couldn\u2019t face raising her. I\u2019d tried to make sure she knew his choice said nothing about her. But I\u2019d been talking about the wrong man.
\nAnd Daniel, wherever he was, might have spent all those years believing Hannah had taken their child out of his life.
\n\u201cGrandma?\u201d
\nI looked up. Audrey stood in the doorway, still wearing the blue sweatshirt she\u2019d pulled on after school. Her gaze went straight to the box.<\/p>\n
\nI wanted another minute. I wanted enough time to understand what I\u2019d read before I changed what Audrey knew about her own life.
\nBut she was already looking at the envelopes, and I wouldn\u2019t hide them from her.
\n\u201cYes,\u201d I said. \u201cI found it behind the closet shelf.\u201d
\nAudrey knelt beside me. She picked up the yellow sweater by one sleeve and gave a small, startled laugh.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s so tiny.\u201d
\n\u201cShe made it for you. She wanted you to wear it home.\u201d
\nAudrey held it against her chest. Then she noticed the envelopes.
\n\u201cAre those for me?\u201d
\n\u201cOne for each birthday.\u201d
\nHer eyes filled. \u201cShe wrote all of them before I was born?\u201d
\nI nodded.
\nAudrey touched the envelope marked 15<\/em>. \u201cCan I open this one?\u201d
\n\u201cOf course.\u201d
\nShe untied the ribbon and drew out the letter. I watched her read the first few lines, her expression softening.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cShe says she hopes I had cake today.\u201d Audrey gave a watery smile. \u201cShe says when she was fifteen, she was sure she already knew everything.\u201d
\n\u201cThat sounds like her.\u201d
\nAudrey kept reading. Halfway down the page, her smile disappeared.
\n\u201cGrandma.\u201d She looked up at me. \u201cWho is Daniel?\u201d
\nI glanced at the letter in my hand. \u201cI think he\u2019s your father.\u201d
\nHer eyes widened. \u201cYou think<\/em>?\u201d
\n\u201cI only found out a few minutes ago. Hannah wrote to me, too.\u201d
\nI passed her my letter. She read it without speaking, while I sat beside her and wished I had an answer ready for every question she was about to ask.
\nWhen she finished, she lowered the page to her lap.
\n\u201cSo Mark wasn\u2019t my dad.\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd Daniel wanted me?\u201d
\n\u201cFrom what Hannah wrote, yes. He knew she was expecting you. She said he was happy.\u201d
\nAudrey looked back at the photograph. She studied his face for so long that I wondered what she saw there. An unfamiliar man, or some part of herself she had never been able to place.
\n\u201cDid he know Mom died?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know, sweetheart.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t she tell him I was born?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know that either. She planned to explain it when she came home.\u201d
\nAudrey swallowed and unfolded her birthday letter again. \u201cThere\u2019s more.\u201d
\nShe handed it to me, pointing near the bottom.
\nAudrey, if there ever comes a day when you want to find Daniel, you can. You don\u2019t have to decide how you feel about him before you meet him. Ask Grandma to look in the pocket of the yellow sweater. I put something there to help.<\/em>
\nI turned the sweater over and slipped two fingers into a pocket so small I\u2019d mistaken it for a fold.
\nInside was a piece of paper, worn soft from being tucked away for years. It held a street address and a telephone number. Beneath them, Hannah had written Daniel\u2019s full name.
\nAudrey leaned close enough to read it with me.
\n\u201cWe could look for him,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\nShe glanced toward the window. \u201cWhat if he has another family now?\u201d
\n\u201cHe might.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat if he doesn\u2019t want to meet me?\u201d
\nI set the sweater down and took her hand. \u201cThen I\u2019ll be here with you. But we haven\u2019t asked him yet. Hannah wanted him to know about you.\u201d
\nAudrey nodded, though she kept her eyes on the photograph.
\nI was about to suggest we sit at the kitchen table and talk when my phone rang in my pocket. The screen showed an unfamiliar number.
\nI nearly let it go to voicemail. Then Audrey squeezed my hand, and I answered.
\n\u201cHello?\u201d
\nThere was a pause. A man cleared his throat.
\n\u201cMrs. Bennett? My name is Daniel Mercer. I know this call must be unexpected.\u201d
\nI looked at Audrey. She watched my face, waiting.
\nDaniel spoke again, his voice strained. \u201cI found out this morning that Hannah died. I was trying to reach her, and someone gave me your number.\u201d
\nMy grip tightened around the phone.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I said. \u201cShe died fifteen years ago.\u201d
\nThe silence on the other end lasted so long that I thought the call had dropped.
\nThen he whispered, \u201cAnd the baby?\u201d
\nAudrey could hear him. I saw it in the way she sat up straighter.
\nI took a breath. \u201cHer name is Audrey. She\u2019s here with me.\u201d
\nDaniel made a sound I couldn\u2019t quite understand. When he spoke again, every word came slowly.
\n\u201cCould you tell her,\u201d he said, \u201cthat I kept the last picture Hannah sent me? I still have it.\u201d
\nAudrey held out her hand for the phone…………………..<\/p>\nClick Here to continuous Read\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b Full Ending Story\ud83d\udc49:PART 3 \u2014 THE PICTURE HE KEPT<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"