Lives Within Lives
My sister-in-law had a second child. She was still married, but separated with her husband (because she caught him cheating). The man with whom she had the baby was her father’s old prodigy, who was also married with a couple of kids. This all took place in China, while the one-child policy was in full effect.
So: to her parents, the separation and affair were secret, up until she had a baby. Once they were looped in, they helped her to maintain the lies, because ‘face’. From her ex-husband’s perspective, the child and the affair were secret; from the perspective of his family (with whom she remained in touch), the separation, affair, and baby were secret.
This was complicated by the fact that they shared custody of their first kid (in fact, they pretended they were still living together for years). So the older kid was warned not to mention his brother to his father, while spending plenty of time with both.
It was all a secret from most, but not all of their close family (i.e. cousins, aunts, and uncles). And then there was the prodigy’s family, and really the rest of the outside world, for whom there was no separation, no affair, and certainly no kid. That included the government. I’m not even sure how that worked. She wasn’t living another life. She was living fractals of lives within lives.
Just try to imagine the logistics of getting your nonexistent kid to school (under a false identity?) in time to pick up your older kid, who was waiting with your secret lover, so that he could get back to his real family, and you and your kid could meet up with your cheating ex-husband, so that you could all drive together to lunch with family from both sides, doing your best impression of a perfect platonic family who had come straight from a shared, loving home (while being careful that neither you nor your older boy mention to anyone that you have to pick up your other son from school soon).
Now I’ve got a headache. Story credit: Reddit / yiliu