When I was 10, I got a birthday card from a woman named Nancy. I showed it to my parents, and they said it was cute. I never saw that card again.

20 years later, my father died, and I found that card in his closet. Suddenly, I realized there was a letter next to it, written by Dad. It said, “Mom should never know.” I opened it, and my world was turned upside down.

In the letter, my dad revealed that I was adopted and that Nancy was actually my biological mother. She’d had me when she was 15 and left me at an orphanage. My parents, unable to have children of their own, adopted me without ever meeting her.

When I was 10, Nancy reached out to my dad, saying she wanted to reconnect and sent that birthday card. But my father decided to keep her identity a secret, knowing it would devastate my mom. He thought it was best to protect his family and leave things as they were. Everything I thought I knew about my life up to this point felt like a complete lie.