The Hidden Family
What it revealed was not a mystery but an entire family pedigree that Emma or any of her relatives had ever known. It seems that he lived a double life-the kind where one has a secret family on top of the open one to which he was attending. This other family happened to be just miles away from Emma’s ancestors, but their lives never really did intersect with one another.
Emma discovered letters and records from her great-grandfather, which comprehensively painted the balancing of hardships and vices. He was the hard worker who was going away most of the time, probably accounting for why his secret never came out for so long. Some family members felt betrayed over the discovery, while others were enthusiastic about a new relationship with the newly found relatives.
The children of the second family were just as shocked as Emma’s family was by the news. As a matter of fact, it was a missing piece of their own history. It explained suspicions they had had for years and put words to questions they never could frame quite that way.
