“Okay,” I said, licking my lips. “Okay, so she had a baby she gave up.”

“But why didn’t she ever tell you?” Maddy asked.

“Maybe it was painful and she didn’t want to remember it? Maybe it was a closed adoption?” I said.

Maddy shook her head. “Then why does he have your last name though? I mean, that’s weird, right?”

“Maybe a family member adopted him,” Justin said.

I shook my head. “I don’t have any family. Amber’s an only child and my grandparents died young. She didn’t have cousins, no aunts and uncles, nothing.”

I clicked out of Daniel’s profile and like the website was replying to what I just said, a list of names lined up under Daniel’s.

Justine Copeland.

Aunt, on your mother’s side.

Andrea Beaudry.

Aunt, on your mother’s side.

Liz Beaudry.

1st cousin, on your mother’s side.

Josh Copeland.

1st cousin, on your mother’s side.

With every name, my heart pounded harder.

“What is happening?” I breathed.

Maddy looked at me and I could see it in her eyes.

“I’m going to message him,” I said, clicking back on Daniel.

I started typing, but before I even hit send, a message from Daniel came through first. Four words that I felt my brain commit to memory forever.

Your mom is Amber?

My hands were shaking when I typed in “Yes.”

His next message said “please call me” and there was a number.

“He wants me to call him,” I said, looking up at Justin and Maddy.

Maddy gestured wildly to my phone. “Then call him!”

My heart was pounding in my ears. I didn’t want to call him because I was suddenly extremely scared of what he was going to say.

“Emma. Call,” Maddy said.

I looked at Justin. He was chewing on the side of his thumb. He gave me a small nod. I dialed.

“Hello?” a male voice said on the other line.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m… it’s Emma.”

“I can’t believe this,” the man said. “I’m… I’m speechless. You’re my sister,” he said, almost in wonder. “Do you have any siblings? Are there more?”

“No, just me.”

“Did you just find out who your mom was? Who adopted you?” he asked.

I shook my head like he could see me. “Nobody. Amber raised me.”

There was a long pause. “She raised you,” he said, like he didn’t believe it.

“Yes. Who raised you?” I asked.

“My grandparents. She never mentioned you. Not one word—”

“Wait. You’ve talked to her?”

“Of course I’ve talked to her. She came down a couple times a year.”

I’d never felt the blood drain from my face before. But I did now.

“What do you mean she…” I swallowed. “Did you say your grandparents raised you? On your dad’s side?”

“No, Amber’s parents. She had me when she was fifteen and left three years later.”

“But… she said her parents were dead by the time I was born. They couldn’t have raised you,” I said.

The silence that followed felt like sap, it was so thick.

“Our grandparents died when I was twenty-three,” Daniel said. “Eight years ago.”

My breathing started to get labored. Justin’s hand came down on my shoulder and squeezed.

Alive. They were alive until eight years ago… My grandparents had been alive until I was in my twenties.

It was all happening too fast. I couldn’t process everything I was hearing. But one word kept repeating in my brain.

Lies. She’d been telling me lies.

So many. Too many to count.