One quiet summer morning, while helping my parents clear their attic, I found a locked wooden box. Inside was my birth certificate—listing parents I’d never heard of. When I confronted my parents, they admitted I was adopted and said they’d kept it secret to protect me.
Searching for answers, I traced my biological mother—and discovered she wasn’t a stranger at all, but my older sister. The people who raised me were actually my grandparents. In a single morning, everything I thought I knew about my life, my family, and my identity collapsed.
