A Flight Delay Stranded Me at O’Hare, Where I Found the Ex Who Vanished Six Years Ago Asleep Against a Wall With Two Little Boys Who Had My Eyes — Then My Mother Appeared With a Lawyer and a Folder, and Inside It Was a Letter Renouncing My Own Children, Signed With a Signature I Never Wrote

She had been pregnant, alone in a city, and threatened by a law firm, and she had run, because running was the only door left open to her.

“Then why are you back in Chicago now?” I asked, my heart going hard against my ribs.

She lifted her eyes and pointed, past my shoulder, at the departure board — no, past it, at the concourse beyond.

“Because your mother found us again.” My phone chose that exact moment to buzz in my hand.

MOTHER, the screen said.

I answered, and Adelaide spoke without a word of greeting.

“Sebastian.