I Was Told My Newborn Had Died—Then My Eight-Year-Old Son Asked Why Daddy Had Paid Aunt Rachel to Take the Crying Bundle

He stopped at one page and returned to the date.

“She told me an agency was handling it,” he said.

“What agency?”

“A private agency she described as being in California.”

“Did you verify it?”

He looked at me.

“Not as thoroughly as I should have.”

It was the first answer that sounded like something he was admitting rather than something he wanted me to believe.