Chapter 11 - MAEVE DOES NOT COME BACK TO ME
I thought discovering the truth would produce one kind of scene.
Maeve crying.
Me apologizing.
Some old love rising from ruin.
It did not.
We stood outside the family-services building after the DNA result.
Silas and Jonah were inside with a child specialist eating cookies.
I said:
“I’m sorry.”
Maeve nodded.
Nothing else.
“I should have found you.”
“Yes.”
“I believed her.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know the report was false.”
“I know.”
That answer hurt more than accusation.
Then:
“Can we start over?”
Maeve looked at me.
“As parents?”
I had not meant only that.
She knew.
“No.”
Simple.
“Why?”
She almost laughed.
“Because I spent five years believing you took money to erase our sons.”
“That was false.”
“The belief wasn’t.”
I stayed quiet.
Then:
“I built a life around that belief. I learned not to expect you. I learned how to survive your mother’s office. I learned how to explain your absence without making two little boys hate themselves.”
She looked toward the building.
“You don’t get to arrive with DNA and turn us back into the people we were six years ago.”
She was right.
So I asked:
“What do I get?”
“A chance to be their father.”
May you like
That was enough.
It had to be.
