Chapter 5
The drive to Albany took four hours.
Leo sat in the passenger seat, hat resting on his lap, photograph tucked carefully in a small envelope.
He was excited at first.
Then quiet.
Children sense when adults are carrying more than luggage.
“Are they nice?” he asked.
Chloe kept both hands on the steering wheel.
“They are complicated.”
“That means no.”
Despite herself, Chloe laughed.
Leo looked proud of making her smile.
Then he asked, “Did they know about me?”
Chloe’s throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“Did they not want me?”
Every mile of discipline she had built almost failed.
She pulled into a rest stop, parked, and turned toward him.
“Leo, listen to me carefully. Adults can be wrong in ways children never deserve.”
His eyes searched her face.
“So it wasn’t because of me?”
“No.”
“Was it because of Dad?”
Chloe looked at the envelope in his lap.
“I think it was because of what your father knew.”
Leo touched the edge of the photograph.
“Do you miss him?”
Chloe looked through the windshield at the pale road ahead.
“I miss what we never got to have.”
That was the most honest answer she had ever given him.
When they reached the old neighborhood, everything looked smaller.
The sidewalks.
The lawns.
The Miller house.
Even the porch.
Chloe remembered it as a place large enough to exile her.
Now it was only a house with a black door, a lantern, and two aging people inside who had mistaken fear for morality.
She parked across the street.
Leo put on his cap carefully.
“Do I look okay?”
Chloe turned to him.
He looked like courage wearing polished shoes.
“You look perfect.”
He held out his hand.
She took it.
May you like
Together, they crossed the street toward the door her parents had closed ten years ago.
Read the full story 👉 On the drive back to Albany, Leo asked whether his grandparents rejected him because of who his father was.
