But if you want to be their father, you must stop confusing regret with responsibility.”

The DNA report arrived on a Tuesday morning.

I opened it in the presence of my attorney, more nervous than I had been during any negotiation in my life.

The results supported that I was the biological father of both Elias and Rose with a probability exceeding the laboratory’s stated threshold.

The rare failure of my earlier procedure was no longer an abstract possibility; it was part of our family’s history.

A follow-up medical evaluation was consistent with a late failure, though nobody could pinpoint exactly when it had occurred.