What did that even mean? Sorry that Henry was not okay? Sorry that Andrew had done what he had done? Sorry that they had come to—this?

Andrew pushed his hair back off his forehead. “May I ask you a question?”

Henry nodded.

“When I first held the baby, I tried to imagine how it felt for you, when you first held me. Me and Justin.”

“Wonderful is how it felt,” Henry said in a soft voice.

“Wonderful is an interesting word, isn’t it? There’s the sense of great, but there’s this other sense too: full of wonder. Wondering at, wondering about. Did you ever sit there thinking, ‘This is my child—but not really? This is Isaac Schoenfeld’s flesh I am holding. Isaac’s and Judith’s genes, not my genes with my wife’s but his.’”

Henry ran his hand through his beard. He knew he had to speak carefully. Everything had to be careful, much more careful, now. “Of course I had my moments. I would be lying if I didn’t say that. But, Andrew, you must understand that you and Justin arrived after a lot of planning, a lot of yearning. I can tell you that with the clearest conscience. You and your brother were wanted—both of you most certainly and unambiguously came from love.”

Andrew gazed beyond Henry, at the sea. He didn’t say anything right away.

“The way this baby happened was—unusual. I recognize that. And even though I’m sure I will always know her, and do my best to love her, and tell her the truth of how she happened, I believe, and Costanza agrees, that I have to live my own life, just as she has to live hers.”

Henry nodded again. That nod was proving more essential than he could ever have foreseen.

“And Costanza, what does she want? What is her plan—for herself, and her baby? Is she going to live here, with the mother she finds so difficult? Is she done with New York?”

“You have to ask her yourself.”

Henry leaned heavily into the back of the bench. “How? When?”

Andrew looked up at the house. So did Henry.

“She saw you sitting here all morning.”

“I feel spied on.”

“Just observed. And photographed.”

“So you’re still taking pictures.”

Andrew nodded. “I can take a break, but I can’t seem to stop.”