I became a mother at seventeen—and my parents took my baby from me. Now, twenty-one years later, the man living next door looks exactly like the child I lost.

“I was adopted when I was three days old. My parents told me my birth mother left me with this… and a note.”

I felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“What did the note say?” I asked.

He looked straight at me.

“‘Tell him he was loved.’”

That was the moment.

Not suspicion.