Her father spoke next, his tone heavy. “Linda, we adopted you after this. You were so young, you seemed to forget. We couldn’t tell you about the surgery without revealing why we didn’t have a record for it. We never imagined a scar would resurface like this and reveal things we thought best left buried.”
She sat stunned, rocking slightly. “All these years…and you never said?” Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “We thought we were protecting you. Childhood should be free of such shadows. We were sure you were ours the moment you came home.” But to her, it felt less like protection and more like theft—a piece of her life hidden away.