“I know.”
The admission left the room strangely empty.
I ended the call.
For several seconds, none of us moved.
Then Julian crossed to the stove and turned off the burner beneath the simmering pot.
“The food will be cold,” he said. “But I can make something else.”
The simple kindness of the sentence nearly undid me.
“I should leave,” I said.
Evelyn looked at me. “Yes.”
I nodded.
At the doorway, I stopped. Upstairs, I could hear Julian speaking softly to the children. A toy rolled across the floor. Lily giggled, and Samuel shushed her with great seriousness.Hire Babysitters
I wanted to climb the stairs.
I wanted to see their faces without a photograph between us.
But wanting was not the same
as having the right.
“I’m going to ask for a paternity test,” I said carefully. “Not because I doubt you. Because the children deserve certainty, and because I need to take responsibility in a way that doesn’t disrupt their lives.”
Evelyn held my gaze.
“I’m not agreeing tonight.”
“I understand.”
“If it happens, it will be through doctors and attorneys you choose. No one from my family.”
“Agreed.”
“No security outside the house. No appearing at their school. No gifts delivered without asking.”
“Agreed.”
“And you don’t get to call yourself their father until we know what place you can honestly hold in their lives.”
The words hurt, but they were fair.
“I’ll earn the right to be called anything.”
Julian walked me to the door.
Before I stepped outside, he said, “Adrian.”
I turned.
“I don’t think you’re the same man Evelyn married.”
I waited.
“But she doesn’t know
that yet.”
“I know.”
“And neither do the children.”Hire Babysitters
“I know.”
He nodded once. “Then start with patience.”
I stepped onto the front stoop.
Marcus waited by the car, holding an umbrella though the rain had ended.
As we descended the steps, Evelyn called my name.
I turned.
She stood just inside the doorway, one hand resting against the frame.
“Adrian.”
“Yes?”
“The letter from the attorney wasn’t the only thing in that file.”
My pulse quickened.
“What else was there?”
She looked toward the stairs, where Julian and the children remained out of sight.Hire Babysitters
“Victoria said she was protecting us. But the attorney’s letter was written before I left Chicago.”
I waited.
Evelyn’s face had gone pale again.
