Tiny sneakers.
He looked like what he was.
A toddler.
Not evidence.
Not betrayal.
A child.
Daniel leaned back.
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“I mean really told me.”
“I know.”
“I could have prepared.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s voice broke.
“I was afraid you’d say no.”
Daniel looked at her.
“No to what?”
“To him.”
She looked at Caleb.
“By the time the custody hearing happened, he was already calling this home.”
Daniel listened.
“I kept thinking that if I asked you and you said you couldn’t do it, then I would have to choose.”
“Between me and him?”
Rachel nodded.
Daniel was quiet for a long time.
“That wasn’t fair.”
“No.”
“To either of us.”
“No.”
Rachel wiped her cheek.
“But I couldn’t let him go into foster care.”
Daniel looked at the sleeping boy.
“Did anyone ask you to?”
“Melissa disappeared again.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“When?”
“Five months ago.”
“Where is she now?”
“Nobody knows.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
Snow had begun falling lightly outside.
He remembered Melissa at twenty-two.
Bright.
Restless.
Always pretending everything was funny.
He wondered what had happened to turn her life into this.
“Does Caleb know her?”
“Not really.”
Daniel looked at Rachel.
“And he thinks you’re his mother?”
She hesitated.
“He calls me Mama.”
Daniel absorbed that.
“And you want him to call me Daddy.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Rachel looked surprised.
“Because you’re my husband.”
“That’s not enough.”
She waited.
Daniel continued.
“If I’m going to be that to him, I need to choose it.”
Rachel’s eyes filled.
“You’re right.”
“I can’t just walk through the door and become somebody’s father because you decided it.”
“I know.”