My Stepfather Raised Five Children Who Weren’t His — After the Funeral, We Each Received a Letter Never Intended for the Others to Read

“I made a terrible mistake, Christie.”

Thomas wrote that the woman in the locket was his younger sister, Elise. She ran away at seventeen and disappeared for years. Much later, she wrote asking him for help. By the time he reached her apartment in the city, Elise had already died from illness, and her two children, Noah and Susan, had entered foster care.

Thomas brought them home that very month.