“Did you talk to that boy?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I liked him.”

Dad looked out the window.

“Some kids just need someone to come back.”

A week later, when I mentioned our next visit, he asked only one thing.

“Will Leo be there?”

After that, Dad never accompanied us again.

Back in the hallway outside Leo’s room, I stared at Ethan.

“Dad didn’t come that day to support us.”

Ethan understood at the same moment.

“He came because Leo was there.”

“He put us in the same room.”

“That’s all he did,” Ethan said.

“He never forced anything.”

“No.”

“He never touched the paperwork.”

“No.”

“We asked to meet Leo again.”

“And again.”

Ethan took my hand.

“Daniel opened the door, Sophie.”

He squeezed my fingers.

“We were the ones who walked through it.”

“And we chose Leo.”

“We did.”

Now only one thing remained.

Telling Leo the truth.

That afternoon, he sat beside me on the couch.

I found myself staring at the familiar way one of his eyebrows lifted when he was suspicious.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie.”

I smiled.

“You’re right.”

Then I took his hand.

“There’s something I need to tell you about Daniel.”

His fingers tightened.

“Am I in trouble?”

“No.”

“Are you taking the watch?”

“Never.”

I took a breath.

“Daniel was my dad.”

Leo’s eyes widened.

“Your dad?”

I nodded.

“And your mom, Rachel…”

I paused.

“She was my sister.”

Leo became completely still.

“Why didn’t Daniel tell you?”

“Because he thought the truth was complicated.”

“Was it?”

“Yes.”

I squeezed his hand.

“But complicated doesn’t mean you should hide the truth.”

I wasn’t going to pass my father’s silence down to Leo.

He thought for a moment.

“So what does that make you?”

“Your aunt.”

Leo stared at me.

Then came the question I had been afraid to hear.

“But you’re still my mom too, right?”

I pulled him into my arms.

“Forever.”

For years, I believed that whenever someone called something “complicated,” it was simply an excuse to hide the truth.

Now I understood something different.

Life really can be complicated.

Families can be complicated.

Love can be complicated.

But loving someone means facing the truth with them instead of hiding it from them.