One day when Reanna, Mariah’s daughter and Lori, Whitney’s daughter were ten, they were playing at Whitney’s house, talking to each other.

“Reanna, you’re lucky to have a sister,” Lori said with longing.

“Payton is a pain sometimes,” Reanna told her cousin. “You should be glad you don’t have her as a sister. I wished I had an older brother like you do.”

Lori smiled. “Dylan’s okay.”

“I wish you were my sister.”

“Me too, but at least we’re cousins. That’s almost as good as being sisters,” Lori told her as she squeezed her hand and Reanna agreed.

“We look enough alike to be sisters and we have the same birth date, maybe you are my sister.”

Lori laughed, and then shook her head. “I don’t see how that would be possible. We probably look alike because our mothers look so much alike and our fathers are brothers.”

Reanna nodded. “Still, I wish you were my sister.”

Whitney just happened to overhear the girls talking and decided it was time to tell them the truth about their relationship, so she picked up the phone and called Mariah.

“Hello?”

“Mariah, it’s Whitney. I think the girls are old enough to know truth about them being half-sisters.”

“Are you sure you want to tell them?” Mariah asked nervously, as she had hoped they wouldn’t ever tell the girls the truth.

Whitney thought back to the day Lori was born. She and Chandler had been alone in her hospital room, Lori was in his arms, and she had the birth certificate application in her hand. “What name should I use for the father on the birth certificate?” she asked, looking over at her husband.

“We should be truthful and use Evan’s name. When Lori is old enough, we’ll sit her down and explain the situation to her.”

“You sure telling her will be a good thing?” She worried that her daughter would think badly of her.

“No, but it has to be done. Every day that we don’t tell them, we’re living a lie.”

Whitney’s mind returned to the present. “Chandler told me the day the girls were born that this was something we had to do. They had the right to know, otherwise, we’ll be lying to them.”

“We’ll be over.”

“Wait,” Whitney called out.

“What?” Mariah asked, wishing her sister would say she’d changed her mind.

“What about Dylan and Payton?” Whitney asked softly. “Shouldn’t we tell them too? Have you thought what are we going to do about the other children? Are we going to tell them as well?”

“We’ll start with the girls, then we’ll tell Dylan and Payton. We’ll call Lindsay and Lesley, to let them know that we’ve told the girls, then if they think their children should know, then they can tell them.”

Soon the four adults were sitting in Whitney and Chandler’s living room alone with Reanna and Lori, while Dylan and Payton played outside. The two girls sat side by side on the couch holding hands, scared that they had something wrong. Whitney assured them that they weren’t in trouble, then sat down on the sturdy wooden coffee table in front of them.

“We have something to tell you and thought it was best to do it without Dylan and Payton.” She looked over at Chandler for moral support and he smiled at her. She took a deep breath, then started her story. “You remember the story about how Mariah, Lindsay, Lesley, and I were separated where we were younger.” The two nervous girls nodded. “What you don’t know is that I’d met Evan before I was reunited with Mariah.” She looked over at her sister, she nodded, and then she looked back at the girls.

“Evan and Mariah had had a big fight just before he left on a business trip and he thought his marriage was over. On the night I met him, he’d been drinking and when he first saw me, he thought I was Mariah. I told him I wasn’t his wife, then sat down next to him as he told me about the woman he loved. By the way he talked about her, I mistakenly assumed his wife was dead and we didn’t find out until months later that he and I were related.”

She stopped when she realized she was rambling. “To make a long story, short, he and I . . .” she began, looked at Evan, then stopped. Tears began to form as she stared at her daughter, unsure how she could tell her that Chandler wasn’t her father or that she’d had sex with her sister’s husband.

“Whitney, let me,” Evan said, walking to join Whitney on the coffee table.

“You know how babies are made, don’t you?” The two girls nodded. “Sometimes alcohol can make someone do something they normally wouldn’t do. On that night that Whitney and I met, we were very drunk, we went to bed together, and together we created Lori,” he said quickly.

Both of the girls gasped and looked over at each other, but Evan continued with his story. “I came home to Mariah and we created Reanna. You two are half-sisters,” he said with tears in his eyes, thinking this was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.

Lori looked sadly over at the man who she thought as her father. “Does this mean you aren’t my daddy anymore?” she choked out.

Chandler hurried to her and pulled her into his arms. “No, sweetheart. It just means you and Reanna are sisters. Nothing is going to change, you’ll continue to live with us and call me Daddy, and Reanna will live with her parents.”

“Daddy, did you know about me when you married Mom?”

“Yes. She and I met the day she came to tell Evan about you. I proposed to her, telling her that I couldn’t have children of my own and I wanted you to be my child.”

“Without even meeting me?” she asked with awe.

“Yes, and when Aunt Mariah came into the room and saw your mother, she knew they were sisters, and we have been one big family ever since.”

“What about Dylan?” she asked.

“What about him?”

“If you can’t have children, who’s his daddy?”

“His real mommy and daddy were killed. Your mother and I adopted him when you were about two years old.” He watched as her eyes filled with tears up. “Why the tears?”

“Does that mean he isn’t my real brother?”

“You aren’t related by blood, but he’s been your brother in every sense of the word since the day we adopted him. Do either of you girls have any questions?” Whitney asked them, relieved with the two girls shook their heads. “Why don’t you and Reanna go play? We’ll talk more about this later.”

The girls left them and the four adults looked at each other.

“That went well, don’t you think?” Evan asked the others.

“Lori took the news better than I thought she would,” Whitney said, looking at her husband.

“Maybe they’re too young to understand the significance of the situation,” Mariah told her sister.

“With today’s television, I’m sure the girls understand infidelity,” Whitney said softly, refusing to look at her sister. She took a deep breath, then looked back at Mariah. “After all these years, not once have you yelled at me about that night. I still don’t understand how you accepted what I did with your husband as easily had you did.”

Mariah hurried over to her. “Whitney, it’s like Chandler said about it all those years ago. Evan thought you were me, and you thought his wife was dead, and neither one of you remember that night. It wasn’t as if you purposely went to bed together to hurt me. If I wanted to have you both in my life, I had to put that night out of my mind and I have.”

“Don’t you think about it every time you see Lori?” Whitney asked her sister, tears running down her cheeks.

“No, I see the daughter of my sister and her husband.”

Whitney smiled at her. “Thanks for being who you are. I’m so glad you’re my sister and in my life again.”

“Me too. You know what I want to do?”

“No, tell me.”

Mariah’s eyes began to water. “I want to have a professional portrait done of the four of us, like the one we had before our family was torn apart.”

Whitney hugged her sister. “I like that idea, but first we need to tell Dylan and Payton about their sisters’ relationship.”

Mariah took hold of her sister’s hand. “Come on, let’s do this together.”

The two sisters left their husbands behind and went outside to tell Dylan and Payton the truth about the girls. After the children were told, Whitney and Mariah returned to the house with them, both women relieved that the chore of telling the truth about Lori and Reanna’s relationship was finally behind them.

The next week the family had their picture taken, and once again, the four Arrington sisters had one of them standing side by side. Then they had one with each of their own family alone, and one of the entire family together, which make a wonderful family portrait.