“You know, I’ve been carrying this secret with me for almost two decades now. I didn’t tell my wife until a couple of weeks ago. That was a relief.”

Brian looked at Azure and she touched him on the shoulder, encouraging him on. When he found the words, he spoke again. “My mom was adopted. Her mom couldn’t raise her and she hated her for it. So I always figured that you’d hate me too.”

“No, I don’t hate you at all.”

Brian looked into the face of his son as if he could see deep into his soul, and he believed David was telling the truth. He felt moisture come to his eyes and tried to shake it off but couldn’t. He looked at the fire and smiled. “That’s good to hear.” Then he looked away and nobody said anything, and it felt like all the words had left the world.

He lifted a hand and Azure took it. When he spoke, his voice trembled. “You know, that’s why I had such a hard time choosing adoption, because of that. But now that I look back at it, the other option that we considered was worse. Much worse. And I’m sorry. It was kind of foolish when I think about it now.”

“I actually wanted to thank you. You’re part of the reason I have all of this.” David looked at his parents. “Thank you.”

“You know, there were times when I thought, what if we would have kept you? But I look at you and I see your parents, and I realize that it was the right call.”

David couldn’t help staring at Brian, his mannerisms, the way he seemed to process life. When they walked inside, he saw Brian’s gait and recognized his own walk, the way he held his hands to his sides and took long strides.

When Brian said he had made “the right call” on letting David be adopted, something stirred inside. Their lives would have been a lot easier if they had simply gone for an abortion. That thought led him down a different trail altogether and it was not a trail he cared to travel. Maybe there was more to his story than they had told him. He wanted to ask Brian, but he didn’t feel like this was the time or the place.

Azure asked David to come to Presley’s room and he felt bad when he realized he hadn’t brought her a gift. His sister wanted him to see her collection of toys and books. David followed them and Presley showed him every stuffed animal she had in her closet and told him what each was named.

“She can’t say her d’s too well, so you’re Javid to her,” Azure said.

“Javid’s fine with me.”

Presley handed him a book from her nightstand and asked David to read it.