Who could say, “Your dad hated carrots too,” and make memory into inheritance.
Still, that night, I sat alone in my penthouse and felt something inside me ache with selfish disappointment.
Elise called me out on it the next morning.
“You wanted to keep them,” she said.
“No.”
“Ryker.”
I closed my eyes.
“I wanted them safe.”
“And with you.”
I said nothing.
“That doesn’t make you terrible,” she said. “It makes you attached.”
“They need family.”
“They also need people who love them enough not to turn this into a competition.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I almost laughed. “You ask that a lot.”
“You require repetition.”
Nathan began supervised visits.
At first, I stayed away from those. It seemed better. Cleaner.
But Lily asked for me.
Then Owen asked whether visits with Uncle Nathan meant visits with Ryker were “all done.”
Maya arranged one shared visit.
It was awkward
