Then, last month, the old landline rang during Sunday dinner. Mark groaned, picked up, then froze. “Lawyer,” he mouthed.

The man on the line introduced himself as Attorney Cohen.

“My client, Suzanne, has instructed me to contact you regarding Gabriel and Grace. It concerns a substantial inheritance.”

I laughed bitterly. “This sounds like a scam. We don’t know anyone named Suzanne.”

“She is very real,” he assured. “She’s left Gabriel and Grace—and your family—an estate worth $4.7 million. Suzanne is their biological mother.”

The phone nearly slipped from my hand.

Two days later, we sat in Cohen’s office, staring at a letter written in the same desperate hand as that note from a decade ago.

My dearest Gabriel and Grace,