Chapter 19 - DANIEL’S TWO FATHERSDaniel struggled with language.
“My father wasn’t my father.”
I corrected him once.
Then stopped.
His identity was his to work through.
Eventually he said:
“Robert was my father. Thomas was my biological father.”
Better for him.
Allison did not want an instant sibling relationship.
Neither did Daniel.
They exchanged a few emails.
Medical history.
Family information.
A photograph of Thomas at thirty.
Daniel stared at it.
Same jaw.
Same left eyebrow.
Genetics can feel emotionally rude after forty years of photographs showing resemblance where everyone wanted to see it.
Daniel said:
“I spent my whole life trying to look like Dad.”
“You did not.”
“I copied him.”
“That isn’t DNA.”
He looked at me.
I realized the sentence.
The same lesson he had failed to give Sophie.
Love.
Imitation.
History.
Parenthood.
None required identical chromosomes.
He knew that now.
May you like
Too late to save our marriage as it had been.
Not too late to change how he fathered Sophie.
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