My mom had me at 17 and gave me up. At 20, I found her, but she said, ’’Forget about me! My husband is a powerful man, and he’d leave me if he knew about you.’’ A year later, her husband tracked me down and showed up at my door with teary eyes. My entire reality shifted as he revealed that everything my mother told me that day was a complete lie.

He explained that he overheard a secret conversation between my mother and her mother, where he discovered she had a daughter. When he confronted her, urging her to reconnect with me, she refused and coldly claimed I was ’’de:ad to her.’’ Determined to find me, he hired an investigator and eventually located me. He wanted to meet his wife’s first child.