“But Ivy wasn’t one of them.”

His eyes filled.

“I didn’t hold her because I wanted another baby.”

“I know that now.”

“I heard her cry and I…”

He pressed a hand to his chest.

“I needed to remember what life sounded like.”

That sentence broke something inside me.

Understanding why he did it didn’t make everything okay.

But I could finally see the grief behind it.

“We can’t keep guessing what the other person needs,” I said.

Robert nodded.

“We’re getting help.”

“Counseling?”

“Yes.”

I looked at him.

“We need help with this. Willie needs parents who are available to him, and we need to tell him the truth.”

Later that evening, Willie sat between us on the couch.

Robert took a deep breath.

“So Aunt Claire has Ivy?”

“Yes,” he said. “Ivy is her baby.”

Willie looked at him.

“And Claudia?”

I took his hand.

“Claudia died at the hospital.”

His eyes immediately filled.

“So I can’t get her back?”

I squeezed his hand.

“No, sweetheart.”

He leaned against me and cried.

Robert wrapped an arm around us both.

For once, nobody tried to fix anything.