I told myself distance would help us both heal.

In truth, distance made it easier not to ask the questions I was afraid to hear answered.

Now Mason was in the next room.

“Is he my son?” I asked.

Lauren’s eyes filled, but she did not look away.

“Yes.”

The porch railing was the nearest solid thing, and I held it.

There were moments when news did not arrive as a sentence but as an entire future suddenly gone.