Arya gasped, her eyes wide with shock. “You got impregnated by your mother’s boyfriend?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Isabel nodded solemnly. “I did. I did all I could as a pregnant teenager with no home. I wish I’d known about the convent back then—it would have made my life so much easier. With little to no source of income or support, I was miserable and alone in the trenches of this town after I had to leave the old one. I won’t bore you with all the details. But when I was in labor, I had to make some difficult decisions.”

FLASHBACK

Isabel sat in the...