BURNED EMPIRE
"What are you talking about?"
She walked to her desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a folder I recognized instantly as the kind of thing she never let anyone else touch. She set it on the desk between us without opening it.
My mother watched me for a moment before continuing, like she was deciding how much of my reaction to enjoy before moving forward. "Selena came to me two years ago," she said. "Frightened. Desperate. She'd discovered, through her own quiet investigation, that you were unable to father children. A condition, she believed, that had existed for years, long before your marriage to her." My mother's eyes stayed fixed on mine, unblinking. "She was terrified I would blame her