After My Wife Died, I Found Out We’d Been Divorced for over 20 Years – What I Learned Next Shocked Me Even More

Mother: Claire T.

Father: Unlisted.”

Lila had been born three years before Claire and I had married. I had never heard her name. I had never seen this certificate.

And never, not once in all our years together, had Claire told me she had a child.

I stared at the page, completely stunned. My wife had lived an entire chapter of her life without me — and never told me a word.

Maybe I saw the sadness in Claire’s eyes, saw what the waiting, during my recovery, was doing to her. Perhaps, I wanted to set her free — even if I didn’t know what I was losing.

I sank back against the bed, the paper falling into my lap.

The house felt too quiet now, the silence pressing in like a second skin.

I stared at the open box on the floor, willing it to shift and offer a better explanation.

I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel.

Grief? Yes.

Betrayal? Maybe.

Confusion?

Absolutely.

Then came the knock at the door.

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