“Ana, mi niña! It’s you. I can’t believe I’m seeing you again.”
“Mama.”
“Let me kiss you, look at you. Twenty-years! I knew this day would come. Every day, every single day, I prayed we would be reunited, that you wouldn’t forget me. Do you remember me?”
“I was only five when you abandoned me.”
“I didn’t desert you. Your grandmother took you to the airport while I was away visiting your father in prison. I wouldn’t have ever let you go.”
“You signed the paperwork.”
“They tricked me. I never imagined it would happen. I was desperate and afraid the government would take you.”
“So instead, you put me on an airplane for strangers to raise me. What was the difference?”
“I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. It wasn’t I who put you onboard that airplane. It was your grandmother. You have to believe me. I would have never done that.”
“What happened to her? Where is she?”
“She died many years ago. In the end, she suffered a lot and asked me for forgiveness. She realized she shouldn’t have done what she did. She thought she was doing it to save you.”
“Did you forgive her?”
“Yes.”
“Why? If you love me so much, you’d hate her.”
“I did hate her. For years, I cursed her and wished her dead, but I knew I had to forgive her.”
“Why?”
“Because I had you to live for. I had to survive so I could find you again and hating her was eating me alive. I didn’t do it for her. I did it for me, for you.”
“I don’t believe you. I feel so betrayed, first by you and then by the people who adopted me. I only found out I wasn’t their daughter a year ago. I was crushed. It wasn’t as much to learn I was adopted but because they lied to me. My whole life had been a fabrication. How can I believe you now?”
“You must. I can’t change what happened. I can’t make up for the lost years. But I don’t want to waste another minute to show you how much I love you. You must forgive them and me like I forgave your grandmother.”
“I don’t know that I can ever trust again.”
“Let me show you how.”
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