You need to focus.”
“You need to read this.”
“Anna… what is this?”
She broke then. “I’m not hiding another man, Henry. I was hiding the part of me they taught me to be afraid of.”
“Anna, slow down. Start from the beginning.”
“When I was pregnant, my mom got scared,” Anna began. “She said people would start asking about my grandmother.”
“Your grandmother?”
“I’m not hiding another man, Henry.”
I hadn’t met Anna’s grandmother — she passed years before we even got together. Or so, that’s how the story went.
“Henry,” she continued. “I never really got to know her. My mother always told me we were ‘just white,’ but it wasn’t true. My grandmother was mixed-race. Half white, half Black.”
She sighed before speaking again.
“When she married my grandfather, his family didn’t accept her, and they pushed her away after she had my mother. My mother kept that piece hidden from me until… Raiden.”
“My grandmother was mixed-race.”
Anna’s eyes searched mine, pleading for understanding.
“My mom told me if anyone found out, it would cause trouble for us,” Anna said quietly.
I frowned. “Trouble how?”
“She said people would start asking questions. About her mother. About our family.”
I shook my head. “Anna… that’s not a reason to carry this alone.”
“She was ashamed,” Anna continued, her voice trembling. “My grandfather’s family made sure of that. They treated it like something that had to stay hidden.”
“Trouble how?”
“Hidden from who?” I asked.
“From everyone,” she whispered. “From the church. From neighbors. From people like your parents. She begged me not to tell anyone.”
I stared at her. “So you’ve been carrying this the whole time?”
Anna nodded. “I thought I was protecting you. Protecting the boys too.”
