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Ivy couldn’t help but notice that her mother-in-law prepared her drink with only one ice cube and forwent both the zest and sparkling water.

Grace took a healthy gulp, and then asked, “where was I? Oh yes. I was eighteen and married. Two weeks after my honeymoon, I suffered my first miscarriage. It would be the first of many. Over the next six years, I would lose baby after baby. My parents and Larson begged me to stop. To pick a charity. What charity would fill the hole of a child?” Grace stopped and examined the glass.

“Then Larson found out about a colleague’s daughter who had gotten herself in trouble. At first, I refused. I wanted a baby of my own.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “I wanted to give him his own child. I hadn’t told him yet, but I was pregnant again. A month later, I wasn’t. So, I agreed. I didn’t want to give up hope, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”

Grace drained her glass and poured some more. She looked at the glass, inspecting it and then sighed deeply, then put the glass down.

“The first time I held him. I knew he was mine. Up until I held him, his name was going to be Larson III but I looked into his little face, and he looked up at me with those precious little blue-grey eyes and I saw the soul of an Emmanuel. I also knew he was meant to be my little boy.”

When Ivy had felt the need to come and visit her mother-in-law. She hadn’t expected this revelation.

Whew, this was a whole lot to take in. So many questions raced through her mind it was hard to process it. Grace walked over and resumed her seat beside her.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Ivy asked because she knew with certainty there was no way Manny knew this and didn’t tell her.

“I wanted to. We were going to tell him when he turned thirteen. Then, sixteen, then twenty-one. Those birthdays would come and go. I couldn’t bring myself to utter those words that he was my chosen son. Then I convinced myself that loving him with everything I was had to be enough. Besides, she knew we had him, and in all those years, she never reached out. Not once. As a matter of fact, that was a stipulation of the adoption. Even if I told him he wasn’t my birth son, ‘she’ never wanted her identity to be revealed to him.”

“You spoke to her?” This part was important because her gut instinct was raging again.

“No, I never spoke to her. Neither of us did. It was all handled through an attorney. You must think terribly of me.”

“No. Not at all. Why would I? I’ve always thought you did an amazing job raising a very special man.” Ivy reached over and drew her mother-in-law into her embrace. They stayed joined like that for a moment. Grace was the first to pull away. Her eyes held a sheen.

“I’ve been carrying that around for so long. I thought once I admitted it, it would be a weight off my chest. Instead, it feels like this ordeal is just beginning.”

Grace had no idea. Ivy was sure Grace just meant letting Emmanuel know, but if her hunch was correct. This revelation was going to stir the hornet’s nest on a grander scale.

“Ivy?” Her mother-in-law’s tone drew her attention from her musings.

“Yes?”

“You said, Emmanuel, and you are in a better place. Correct?”

Ivy nodded as her forehead creased. She was uncertain where Grace was going with this observation.

“I know this is a lot to ask, but I don’t think I can do it. Would you tell my boy what we have been keeping from him?”

Grace couldn’t be serious about this. Ivy was shocked. That was a huge ask. What was she thinking?

“I think he would take the news better if it came from you.”

Ivy was just about to tell her, absolutely not, that this was something that his parents needed to step in and tell him when a thought struck her.

“Alright. I will do it.”

“You will!?” Although she had made that huge ask, it was clear that she hadn’t expected Ivy to agree.

Maybe she should feel bad for what she was about to do, but Ivy needed information. Later, much later, she would allow herself to feel bad that she used this moment to gather it.

“Can you provide me with all the adoption paperwork?”

“See? You know Emmanuel well enough to think of gathering information. I will get it from the safe.”

“Thank you. If you don’t mind, I need a few days to figure out how to best break the news to him.”

“Yes, of course. Hell, I haven’t been able to brooch the topic in the last fifty years.”

Only the slightest twinge pricked her conscious. No, she wouldn’t share with her mother-in-law her true intent in obtaining the information. After Grace retrieved the papers from the safe, and Ivy had them securely in her purse, the women sat to finally had their desserts.

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