Jason sat down next to Stephanie at the picnic table. This table, located in the park near her home, had become their special place. It was the place that they first shared a little of themselves, and as time passed, became more than neighbors.

Jason was fighting the shakes as he took a deep breath. It was time to come clean. Time to explain what he had done, and why. Time to desperately hope that he hadn’t destroyed what he so very much wanted to nurture.

“Stephanie, I have some things to say. I hope that you will give me the chance to fully explain before you do what you feel you need to.”

Her voice was soft, and full of concern. “Jason, whatever it is, we’ll deal with it together. Just tell me.”

Jason looked at her lovely face, taking in her beauty as if it were the last time he would see her. His eyes were glassy with the unshed tears he quickly fought off. “What if you were separated from your family as an infant? What if one day you discovered that they existed? How would you try to connect with them?

“Think about it. If you were to knock on their door and try to explain, at best, they would be suspicious; at worst, slam the door in your face. They don’t know you, and you really don’t know them. What you do know is that you have spent your life imagining how wonderful it would be to have a real family.

“A direct approach is probably doomed to fail. Maybe, just maybe, it’s best to get to know them first. Maybe the way to do that is be near them, without saying anything. It isn’t a lie, it’s delaying the inevitable while you get an understanding of the people you want to love, and be loved by.

“If you had the means, you could move nearby, or work where they worked, do something that would ensure you could interact with them frequently.

“What do you think, Stephanie?”

She was a tad confused but was taking me seriously and worked her way through her thoughts. I was good with that. I wanted her to take all the time she needed. Eventually, she nodded. “Yeah, I can’t think of a better way to ease into things I guess. I suspect that it wouldn’t be that simple.”

“That’s a very good point. Imagine that you manage to pull it off. You move near them and, over time, get to know them. The problem is that the more you get to know them, the more you find reason not to tell them everything.

“Your friendly neighbor relationship has changed into something else. Something much, much deeper. The woman who doesn’t know she’s your stepmom is a wonderful human being. You care about her very much. Worse, or better considering, you’ve fallen in love with her daughter, your stepsister. Telling them the truth will likely make them despise you, hate you for lying, call you a pervert.

“But you can’t keep living a lie. You care too much for them to hide the truth. You have to tell them because you love them, even though you know you are destroying any chance you have for happiness.

“What would you do, Stephanie? What if you weren’t the neighbor, but were the woman he fell in love with?”

She looked at me for the longest time, her face unreadable. She took a deep breath and a tear ran down her cheek. “I think that I would follow my heart. I would let him explain before deciding anything.”

She moved close to me, snuggled against me, and put her head on my chest. “I’m listening.”

I struggled to find my voice as the emotions were threatening to overwhelm me. “My father had taken a lover, even though he had a wife and a baby daughter at home. The lover got pregnant and my father decided that the best option for everyone was to give me up for adoption. After that, he broke things off with his lover, and returned home. I was that unwanted kid. I grew up in foster care after my adoptive parents were convicted of child abuse, spent some time in the military, then started my own security company. I managed to grow it into a successful business, and was going on with my life when my mother reappeared.

“Until that day, I had no idea who she was or what she looked like. My mother was a human that birthed me and nothing else. I knew what a real mother was supposed to be, but I had never experienced that. When she showed up at our headquarters, I was naturally skeptical.

“The more she talked, the less skeptical I became. Every word she said was being heard by my staff and they were researching all of it in real time. Point after point checked out. I had to admit that she was the real deal. Now, I needed to understand why now, why at all? What did she want?

“What she wanted was to come clean. She wanted forgiveness. She was dying and didn’t have much time left. I let her explain and pretended that I forgave her. I didn’t see any reason to make her suffer at this point for abandoning her infant son. I couldn’t be as cruel as she and my father had been.

“She told me where my father was and what he had been doing since my stepmom had divorced him. I couldn’t have cared less about him, and I suspect that she knew that. He was less than nothing to me, and I expect that will never change.

“She also told me about my stepmom and that I had a stepsister. She told me enough for me to find them. For the first time in my life I felt this visceral need to know everything about them. I let myself believe in the possibility of a real family.

“Then I got to know them, and I was lost. When I began this weird journey, I wanted to find my family. I expected that they would be mundane people, living their mundane lives. I never expected the depth of emotion that I had to deal with.

“Here I was, trying to connect with emotions that I’ve never had the privilege of feeling before, only to find that the people I was connecting with were far from mundane. I’ve never felt such excitement and apprehension. I fell in love with both of them.

“I began to dream of a future where my stepsister and I could be together, loving, and living out our lives. My heart ached for such a wonderful and unobtainable future. It fully hit me two days ago. Two days ago, I realized that my dreams weren’t nearly as important as the happiness of the ones I loved. Two days ago, I decided that they needed the truth, no matter what it cost me.

“Two days ago, I knew I had to tell you how I feel, and I don’t care about the rest of it. It didn’t matter that there was an astronomically slim chance that I would realize my dream. I had to let you know my secret and how I felt.

“So, I’m just going to say it, I love you, Stephanie. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I also want you to know that you didn’t ask for any of this, and I had no right to put you in this horrible position. You don’t owe me a thing, and I owe you everything.”

Stephanie began to cry. Soon she was wracked with sobs. I was still as a corpse, knowing that the life I wanted so much was evaporating. I began thinking about my escape plan. I had set things up from the beginning so that I could disappear from their lives if things went sideways. The last thing I ever wanted to do was bring them pain. My body felt numb, without the energy to stand, let alone leave. In that moment, I felt that I had lost everything and I didn’t want to go on.

Stephanie gradually stopped crying. The silence was devastating, and I tried to fill it. “I can’t describe how sorry I am to have hurt you. I hope that one day you can forgive me.”

She turned her face up to me. Her expression was confused. “Forgive you? There is nothing to forgive. I am so sad that your life happened the way it did, but if you think for one minute I’m going to let you get away, you're fucking insane.

“Mom’s going to freak! Let’s go home. I can’t wait to see the expression on her face when I tell her that her daughter and stepson are going to spend their lives together.”