At the restaurant, he ordered simple food he knew kids would like. While waiting, he tried to learn more about this “Aunt Karen.”
“How long have you known her?”
“Since we got to House of Smiles,” Mason said. “But she wasn’t there at first. First there was Aunt Patricia, then she left and Aunt Karen came. She was different.”
“Different how?”
“She used to cry when she looked at us,” Logan said softly. “And she always talked about how our dad was going to come get us one day.”
“She knew a lot about you,” Mason added. “She knew you like your coffee black, and that you have a scar on your knee.”
Ethan nearly choked. How did this woman know such personal details? The scar on his knee was from a childhood bike accident. Very few people knew that.
“What else did she say about me?”
“That you lost someone very important and that’s why you were sad for a long time,” Mason said seriously. “And that one day you would understand we were waiting to make you happy again.”
A chill ran down Ethan’s spine. This was too specific to be a coincidence. Someone who knew him well had planted this story in the boys’ heads.
When the food arrived, he watched them eat slowly, savoring every bite like they weren’t sure when the next meal would come. They even tried to secretly stuff pieces of bread into their pockets.
“You don’t have to hide food,” Ethan said gently. “There’s plenty.”
“Sorry,” Mason said, embarrassed. “At the shelter sometimes there isn’t enough when new kids come.”
Ethan felt a surge of anger. What kind of place was this shelter?
As they ate, the boys told him they had been in several homes before House of Smiles. They had been found alone in an apartment at age three after their biological parents left and never came back. That’s why they hoarded food — a survival instinct.
When Ethan mentioned he might not be their real father, the twins’ faces crumpled. They hugged each other tightly, tears streaming down their cheeks.
“But Aunt Karen was sure,” Mason sobbed. “She said you just didn’t know it yet because you had a lot of things to fix first.”
Ethan felt like a monster for causing their pain.
“Listen, I’m not going to abandon you,” he said softly, pulling them both into a hug. “We’re going to figure this out together, okay?”