The time between arriving at the hospital and the sound of the infant’s first wail passed in a flash, Tom had been by her side all the time, holding her hand as their baby was born. The midwife turning with the small bundle wrapped in a blanket and smiling, ‘Congratulations, you have a beautiful baby…………’
I decided to end my story now as I know the facts of their life from this point onwards, an idyllic childhood was followed by several years as a stroppy teenager. Marriage followed in my late twenties and I had a couple of children and at no point was there any impropriety. Was I shocked that day when I finally learned their secret, of course, I was, up until that point, there had been no inkling of the truth. Jessica passed away two weeks later, just before her eightieth birthday and was sadly missed by all. Tom soldiered on for another twelve years, but I got the feeling things had changed for him, he enjoyed our family and grand-kids and in summer I would find him pottering around in his garden, the deckchair still sat at one end, he would turn and smile in its direction as if Jessica was still sat there, and perhaps she was. And then he went off to join her, reunited once more and I was left with the strangest feeling. Was my mother really my grandmother, or rather that my father was my brother!.