A woman walked into my father's funeral with three children and told my mother, "I'm sorry, but he promised us we'd be taken care of." My mother didn't look surprised. That was the part that scared me. My parents had been married for 34 years. Dad died suddenly two weeks ago. The woman looked about 40. Her oldest child was probably 16. Me: "Excuse me, who are you?" Woman: "I'm sorry. I didn't want to cause a scene." Me: "Then why are you here?" She looked at my mother. Woman: "She knows." I turned to Mom. Me: "Mom?" Mom: "Not here, sweetheart." Me: "WHAT DOES SHE MEAN YOU KNOW?" My mother grabbed my hand. "Please. Let us bury your father first." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. After the funeral, I confronted her. Me: "Did Dad have another family?" She sat quietly. Then nodded. Me: "For how long?" Mom: "Seventeen years." I felt sick. Me: "And you knew?" Mom: "Yes." Me: "WHY DID YOU STAY?" She looked at me. "Because leaving would've destroyed more lives than staying." I didn't understand. Three days later, the lawyer called us for the reading of Dad's will. The woman was there. So were her three children. My father had left them a house and a substantial amount of money. I was furious. Me: "So he cheated on Mom for seventeen years and rewarded them?" The lawyer interrupted. Lawyer: "There's something you need to understand." Me: "What?" Lawyer: "Your father didn't leave that property to the woman." Me: "Then who?" He pointed at her oldest son. "Everything was placed in his name." I turned to the boy. He looked uncomfortable. Me: "Why him?" Nobody answered. Then the woman started crying. Woman: "I think it's time you knew." My mother stood up immediately. Mom: "Don't." The woman ignored her. She looked straight at me. "Your father wasn't the person who brought me into this family." Me: "What does that mean?" She pointed toward my mother. "She did." I laughed nervously. Me: "My mother introduced you to my father?" Woman: "No." Then she said something that made the entire room go silent. "Your mother paid me every month for sixteen years to keep my oldest son's identity a secret." I turned to Mom. Me: "WHO IS HE?" My mother started crying. The lawyer opened another envelope. Inside was a photograph of my mother holding a newborn baby. On the back was a date. The same date as my own birthday. I stared at it. Me: "Mom, why are you holding two babies?" She whispered: "Because I gave birth to twins." I looked at the boy. He looked nothing like me. Then the woman said: "He's not your twin. Your twin is the reason your father started paying me." My mother collapsed into her chair. And the lawyer quietly placed a second birth certificate on the table. It had my name on it. But the mother's name wasn't hers. – at Ikeja, Nigeria