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“I had to come clean about how much I owed to a loan shark, and Carla was rightfully upset.I promised I would stop gambling, but by then, I was a full-blown addict, and I couldn’t stop.Your mother freaked out even more when the men who worked for the loan shark threatened her and you girls.I assume that’s when she decided to take you and run.”

Morgan looked at her sisters, her face filled with sadness and compassion.She knew what it was like to be an addict.

“I had gotten home from a business trip to find no one home and your closets empty.And then there was a knock on the door.I ran to it, thinking you were back, but instead, I got served with divorce papers.I was devastated.I couldn’t get out of bed for a week, and I almost lost my job.”

“Why didn’t you look for us?”Charlie asked.

“I tried.I hired private investigators, but no one could find where she took you.Now it makes sense since Carla had not only moved across the country but also changed your last names.After a few years and a lot of money, with no results, I had to give up.”

“How could you not know about me?”Abby asked, shaking her leg under the table so hard that the table vibrated.

“Carla never told me she was pregnant.I guess she didn’t want me to know, or you aren’t mine.I’m hoping it’s the former.”

“Me, too,” Abby said quietly.

“So, what happened with your gambling?”Morgan asked.

“After sinking into a deep depression; the high from gambling was the only thing that helped.When one of the bookies broke three of my fingers and threatened to cut off my hand, I left New York and got help for my addiction.I’m now a member of Gamblers Anonymous.”

“I’m glad you got your life together,” Morgan said.

“Same here.It took years, and by the time I was sure I was in a good place, you and Charlie were teenagers.I could finally be a good father to you, but I didn’t know where you were, until I saw that video of your mom saving her neighbor.I finally had her new name, where she worked, and an email address.I wrote her immediately.”

“We looked through her emails and didn’t see anything from you.What email address did you write to?”Abby asked.

“Her work one.”

“It never occurred to us to look through her work emails,” Charlie said.

“What did you say when you contacted her?”Morgan asked.

“I told her that I’d stopped gambling years ago, and I wanted to see my two daughters.”

Morgan watched as Abby got up from the table and walked toward the kitchen with her head down.

“What did my mom say?”Charlie asked.

“You and Morgan were doing well without me and meeting me would upset you both.She refused to tell me where you were.I had no idea if your last name was the same as hers, or if any of you had gotten married and changed your name.”

“Thank you for telling us all this.Would it be okay if we call you back another time?”Morgan asked.

“I hope you do,” Brian said.

After Morgan hung up, Abby brought a glass of water back to the table and sipped it.“It’s not fair,” she said, tapping her fingers as if she were playing a silent piano.“I need to know if he’s also my father.And if he’s not, who the heck is mine?”

“One step at a time,” Charlie said.“I’m sure he’d be happy to take a DNA test.”

The next morning, Morgan called Carla’s real estate firm and told the assistant, Kathy, that she was one of the executors of her mother’s will and needed to get into her work email.Kathy explained that she wasn’t supposed to give anyone outside the firm a password for their computers.Morgan begged, and eventually, Kathy relented and said she would send her a code to get in.

Morgan sat at Carla’s computer for twenty minutes until Kathy sent the code.Morgan carefully inputted it and her mom’s work email popped up.

“I’m in,” Morgan said to the empty room.

As she weeded through emails about open houses, commissions, and conferences, she prayed her mother hadn’t deleted Brian’s emails.Finally, she found seven between her mother and father.They were all dated a week before Carla died.

Carla,

I’m sure I’m the last person you expected to hear from.I searched for you and the girls for years, but eventually, I had to give up because hoping I’d find you and not succeeding took a heavy toll on me.When I saw that video of you online, I finally knew where you’d gone.