When he looked up, there was something in his face I couldn’t quite name.
“It almost seems unfair. He was born healthy, and I wasn’t, but… but I’m still here.” He looked at his adoptive parents. “I’m the lucky one.”
His mother moved closer to him and put an arm around his shoulders. I watched him lean into her, and my heart broke a little.
He was my boy, yet he wasn’t. I’d lost him a long time ago, just not in the way I’d thought.
I watched him lean into her, and my heart broke a little.
Later, standing on the lawn, Carl tried again.
“I thought I was protecting you,” he said.
“You were protecting yourself,” I said. “I’m not blaming you. I think I understand how hard it was for you, but you kept this from me all these years because you couldn’t face telling me. That’s not the same thing as protecting me.”
Carl ran his fingers through his hair. “Can you forgive me?”
“I don’t know, Carl.”
“You kept this from me all these years because you couldn’t face telling me.”
That evening, there was a knock at the door.
I opened it, and Tyler was standing there, fidgeting with the hem of his jacket. He looked young and uncertain and exactly like someone who had just had the ground shift under him.
“I don’t know what to call you,” he said.
I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. “You can just call me Sue. I haven’t earned the right to anything more than that.”