I wanted to.
But this wasn’t my conversation anymore.
Eli asked the question instead.
“Were our birthdays complicated?”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
“Our concerts?” Eli continued. “Were those complicated too?”
“Eli,” I said quietly.
He looked at me, and I realized he wasn’t losing control. He was perfectly calm.
He had simply decided not to protect Daniel from the obvious.
Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.
“I should have done better.”
“Yes,” Owen said.
One word.
No cruelty.
No speech.
Daniel looked almost grateful for something he could agree with.
“I want to do better now.”
That was when Owen looked at me.
I had wondered for years what I would do if this moment ever came.
Would I encourage them? Protect them? Tell Daniel he had lost the right to ask?
But they weren’t little boys anymore.
So I said the only thing that felt honest.
“You don’t have to decide anything today.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“I’m their father, Claire.”
There it was.
Not an apology.
A claim.
