I became suspicious when a new family moved in next door because of the uncanny similarity between their daughter and mine. Is my spouse concealing an affair? The truth was far darker than I had anticipated, but I had to face him.

Like twin sunflowers chasing the sunshine, Emma and Lily were spinning around in our lawn. The beautiful harmony of their laughter should have warmed my heart. Rather, it chilled me to the bone.

I squinted, trying to spot a difference — any difference — between my daughter and our new neighbor’s kid. But it was like looking at two copies of the same photograph. Same golden curls catching the sunlight, the same button nose, and the same mischievous glint in their eyes.

The only obvious way I could tell my Emma from Lily was the inch or so height difference between them.

“Heather?” Jack’s voice snapped me out of my trance. “You okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I looked back at my husband and attempted a grin. “Just pondering.”

I didn’t mention that our ideal little world might be constructed on quicksand.

Jack looked at me incredulously, but Emma rushed over and took his hand.

“Dad, please push Lily and me on the swing!” She sobbed.

“Yeah, of course, dear.” He allowed Emma to guide him to the swing, where Lily was already waiting, but his smile stopped short of his eyes.

“Will I please go first?” Lily inquired.

“Okay, but then it’s Emma’s turn,” Jack replied.

As he helped Lily onto the swing, I couldn’t help but notice how natural they looked together. Like father and daughter. The thought made my stomach churn.

Later that night, after tucking Emma in, I found myself staring at old photo albums. I flipped through pages of Emma’s baby pictures, searching for some feature that screamed “Jack’s genes.”

“What are you doing?” Jack’s voice made me jump.

He stood in the doorway, confusion etched on his face.

I closed the album with a snap. “Nothin’. Just thinking back.

He repeated, “Reminiscing,” with a small grimace as he looked over my shoulder at the photo album resting on my lap.

His eyes were filled with questions, which I could see. He didn’t ask any questions. For example, I didn’t inquire as to why he kept changing the topic whenever I brought up our new neighbors or why we were becoming more and more distant.

My doubts developed like weeds in a neglected garden as the days stretched into weeks. Every giggle between Lily and Jack, every anxious look when I brought up the neighbors. All of it fueled my nagging skepticism.

I finally lost it after a restless night. I turned over in bed and looked at Jack.

“Will I please go first?” Lily inquired.

“Is Lily your daughter?” I blurted out.

The words hung in the air like smoke, acrid and suffocating. Jack’s body went rigid.

“What?” He turned slowly, his face a mask of shock. “Heather, what are you talking about? Where does this come from?”

“Don’t play dumb, Jack. The girls are identical. And you’ve been acting weird ever since Lily and her family moved in.” My voice cracked. “Just tell me the truth. Did you have an affair?”

Jack sat up, running a hand through his hair. “This is insane. Of course, I didn’t have an affair! I made a promise to you before God. How can you think I would break that?”

“So why won’t you discuss them? Why do you become so upset whenever I bring up Lily?

His head hung. His quiet was a powerful statement. He was evaluating lies and truths, and I could practically hear the gears working in his mind.

“I am unable to… At last, he murmured, throwing his legs off the bed, “I can’t talk about this right now.”

“Jack, you have no right to leave me!”

However, he had already left, leaving me to think and worry alone.

I found a letter on the nightstand and an empty bed when I woke up the following morning. “I left early for work. Tonight, we will speak.

The quintessential Jack, avoiding conflict.

My mind was racing, and I spent the day in a daze, going through the motions of everyday life. By afternoon, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I needed answers, and I knew just where to get them.

“Emma, sweetie,” I called out. “Why don’t you go play with Lily for a bit?”

Emma eagerly ran off out the door. I waited an hour before I followed, my heart pounding. I knocked on the neighbor’s door, plastering on my best “neighborhood mom” smile.

Lily’s father answered, his easy grin faltering slightly when he saw me. “Hey, it’s Heather, right? It’s so good to finally meet you! Please, come in. I’m Ryan. Emma’s out back with Lily if you’re looking for her.”

“I am… could you call her, please?”

The moment Ryan’s back was turned, I started searching through his living room.

There were numerous framed photos of Ryan and Lily with people who generally shared Ryan’s dark hair and olive skin tones. His family, I guessed. But why were there no photos of Lily’s mom?

Come to think of it, why had I never seen Lily’s mom?

I peeked down the hallway. That’s when a large photo of a blonde woman hanging on the wall upstairs caught my eye. Without thinking, I hurried up the stairs.

“What are you doing?”

Ryan was frowning up at me when I turned around. I tried to think up a million reasons, but they all got stuck in my throat. I needed to know the truth.

Is it the mother of Lily? “Where is she?”

Ryan winced. Yes, that is Mary. We no longer have her with us.

“Because of Jack?” I walked down the stairs at a trot. Did they not have an affair? Isn’t that the reason Lily and Emma have such a similar appearance?

Ryan shook his head and his eyes widened in dread. “No, God. Did Jack not mention anything to you?

“No! “He didn’t,” I cried out. “But tell me, please, because you seem to know exactly what’s going on here!”
“Mommy?”

Lily and Emma were standing at the end of the hall, worried looks on their near-identical faces.

“Everything’s okay, girls.” Ryan smiled at them. “Me and Heather are going to talk a bit so why don’t you guys go back outside and carry on playing?”

I nodded to Emma. “I’ll call you in a little while.”

The girls exchanged a wary look but didn’t argue.

“Come, sit down.” Ryan beckoned to me as he walked into the living room. “I’ll tell you everything, Heather.”

As we sat across from one another, Ryan stated, “First of all, Jack and Mary didn’t have an affair.” Emma and Lily both inherit their grandmother’s appearance, which explains why they look alike. My sister was named Mary.

“Sister?” I gave a headshake. “Jack made no reference to having a sister.”

Mary was a disturbed child. She was disowned by her family. They did not attend our wedding at all. The only person who even bothered to send a note indicating that he would not be attending was Jack.

As Ryan’s words took hold, the room whirled. I had no idea that Jack had a sibling. Lily’s mother was a sister.

“Where is she now?”

“She passed away last year,” Ryan murmured. “That’s why we moved here. I wanted Lily to have some connection to her mom’s family.”

I put my head in my hands. Everything I thought I knew about my life, about Jack, was crumbling around me.

“I’m so sorry,” Ryan continued. “I thought you knew. Jack… he’s been struggling with this. He feels guilty about not reconnecting with Mary before she died.”

I nodded numbly, my mind reeling. Jack came from a conservative family and I knew they’d had some arguments in the past, but nothing like this!

A familiar sound caught my attention. I looked up just in time to spot Jack’s car driving into our garage next door.

“I… I need to go. Please, keep Emma here a while longer?”

Ryan had followed my gaze, but now he nodded. “Sure. You and Jack have a lot to talk about. She can stay here as long as you guys need.”

The walk home felt like miles. By the time I reached our front door, my anger had cooled, replaced by a hollow ache.

Jack was in the kitchen, staring out the window at the girls playing in Ryan’s backyard. When he turned to me, his eyes were red-rimmed.

“Heather, I need to tell you something—”

I held up a hand, cutting him off. “I know, Jack. About Mary. About Lily.”

His face crumpled. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you.”

“Why didn’t you?” The question came out softer than I expected.

Jack slumped into a chair.

“I felt embarrassed. Despite their pretense of being decent people, my family’s treatment of Mary… I was unable to handle it. I couldn’t acknowledge that I had left my sister behind.

I reached for his hand as I sat across from him. “But why don’t you tell me?”

“I believed that I could shield you from that aspect of my life.” Keep Emma safe. He gave a sour laugh. “On the contrary, I nearly destroyed everything.”

After hours of conversation, Jack finally let go of years’ worth of shame and family secrets. I could feel our gap closing with every new discovery.

As the sun began to set, Emma and Lily’s laughter drifted through the open window. Jack and I moved to watch them, two golden heads bobbing in the fading light light sunflowers.

I felt his heart beat steadily as I leaned against him. I now saw the underlying meaning of the girls’ likeness, even though they still appeared to be duplicates of the same photo.

The girls’ very identical looks were a sign of healing rather than betrayal—a second opportunity for a family that had been split up.

As they spun around in the backyard, Emma and Lily’s laughter reverberated, sounding like the promise of fresh starts. And I wasn’t frightened by the sound this time. Rather, it made me feel better.