I was still in the cab, halfway back to the hotel, when my phone buzzed with a text from
Adrian.
“The second verification came back. Can you talk?”
I read it twice. Then I called him.
He picked up before the second ring, which was its own kind of answer about the state of
things.
“Confirmed?” I asked.
“Confirmed,” he said. “Charles Blackwood is Noah’s biological father. Formally, legally,
definitively confirmed.” A pause. The kind that has weight in it. “I need to tell him today.
I don’t want him waking up tomorrow still not knowing.”
“I know,” I said.
“I’ve been thinking about how to say it,” Adrian said. “The right words. The right sequence.
The way that makes it land as gently as possible for a seven-year-old.” Another pause.
“I don’t think there is a gentle way. I think th
