(Amelia)
I asked him to meet me somewhere that wasn't the hospital and wasn't his house. A small park near the water, a bench, the middle of a weekday when it would be empty. If I was going to take apart five years, I didn't want walls around it.
He was already there when I came. He stood when he saw me, which was a small thing, but I noticed it. He'd never once stood for me in the years I was his wife.
"You came," he said.
"I said I'd tell you the truth. I keep my word. That was always the difference between me and the rest of them."
I sat down. He sat beside me. Neither of us spoke for a moment. Then I gathered up the thing I'd carried alone for five years and started.
"Yes," I said. "He's yours. Ethan is yours. There. Now you have it without a test."
He didn't speak. He closed hi
