"Am I in trouble?" Michaela looked frightened.
"Oh, no! Nothing like that at all," Michael quickly assured her. "We just need to tell you something important."
"What is it?" Michaela was instantly concerned.
"Before I was married to your father, I was married to another man," Natalya began. "My first husband beat me. Your father rescued me from that situation, and then we fell in love and got married. Right after that, I found out I was pregnant with you. We were thrilled, but the pregnancy happened so early in our marriage that I couldn't be sure whether I'd conceived by my first husband or by my second, so there's a possibility that my first husband may actually be your biological father."
Michaela's eyes grew wide. "Is it true?" she asked Michael.
"It's never made any difference in the way I feel about you," Michael told her. "I've always loved you just the same as if I knew for certain that you were my own."
"No!" Michaela screamed, jumping up and dashing to her bedroom, where she threw herself across the bed and burst into sobs. Michael sat on the side of the bed and gathered her into his arms. He rocked and shushed her as if she were a baby.
"Oh, Papa, it can't be true!" Michaela moaned, clinging to him. "Please say you really are my Papa!"
"Of course I'm really your Papa, Micky," said Michael. "Nothing's ever going to change that."
Michaela's sobs subsided.
"Listen, Micky, the reason we've told you this is that there's a chance you may be able to save another girl's life," Michael told her.
"What do you mean?"
"Your mother's first husband was a man named Vladimir Wulfert. He has a sister named Valya, and Valya has a daughter named Yulia. Yulia has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. If your bone marrow is compatible with hers, then you may be able to save her life."
Michaela shook her head uncomprehendingly. "But why would it have to be me?"
"You're Yulia's last hope. None of her other family members has bone marrow compatible with hers."
Michaela just sat there for a long time, her brain reeling with all the new information she'd just received.
"We won't force you to have your bone marrow tested, of course," Michael told her. "But if it were me who was in a position to possibly save another life, I'd have the testing done. I almost died, Micky. Lying helpless with my life's blood pouring out from my bullet wounds, I thought that I was definitely going to die. That experience made me realize how very precious life is, not only my own, but that of others as well."
"So if I had my bone marrow tested, and it turned out to be compatible with Yulia's, that would mean that I'm related to her instead of you?"
Michael searched for the right words. "It wouldn't mean that you are definitely related to her, but it would increase the probability that you are. But that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that if your bone marrow is compatible with hers, then you can possibly save her life."
But Michaela was already shaking her head. "No...no..."
"I know this is really sudden," Michael said. "And you don't have to give us an answer right away. But I would like for you to at least think about it, all right? If you could save Yulia's life, that would be a wonderful thing."
Michael and Natalya went to their own bedroom to get ready for bed.
"You did a wonderful job of explaining it all to her," Natalya told her husband. "I doubt I could have done half as well."
"I feel really bad for having had to tell her those things," Michael replied. "I could see how shattered she was, and I likely would have been as well if I'd been in her place."
"If only there were some way she could have been spared," said Natalya.
"If Yulia were to die, could we have lived with ourselves if we hadn't told her?"
"But Yulia may die anyway," Natalya pointed out. "Even if Micky's bone marrow is compatible with hers and she has the transplant, she may die anyway."
"But at least we would have known that we did everything we could to save her."
Michael lay back in bed and held Natalya in his arms, and she soon felt very drowsy. She thought of all the years of wondering about her daughter's true paternity, of the special bond that had always existed between Michael and Michaela, of the pitiful way Michaela had cried out to Michael. Please say you really are my Papa...
As sleep overtook her, Natalya's final thoughts were of how very much she loved her husband.