I stared at Daniel, convinced he had confused me with someone else.

“What day?” I asked.

He swallowed hard and leaned back in his chair. “The day your parents took you away.”

I laughed nervously. “I’ve lived with my parents my whole life.”

Daniel slowly pulled out his phone.

“I hoped I’d never need to show anyone this.”

He opened an old photo.

Two little boys, maybe five years old, stood beside a weathered swing set near a lake. One wore a blue dinosaur shirt. The other wore a red baseball cap.

The boy in blue looked exactly like me.

My smile disappeared.

“I… I had that shirt.”

Daniel nodded.

“You were my little brother.”

I couldn’t breathe.

He continued quietly.

“Our parents died in a highway accident.”

“What?”

“I thought you knew.”

“My parents are alive.”

“They aren’t our biological parents.”

The words crashed into me.

Daniel explained everything….