That I got a mom and she got left behind.”

“Oh, Silas,” I said.

“I didn’t know how to keep it from you anymore,” he said.

“You adopted me not even knowing I had her.

You signed the papers for half a person.

You deserve to know that there’s this whole — this whole piece of me that’s hers, that’s always going to be hers, and I’ll understand if that’s not what you signed up for, if you want to —”

“Stop,” I said, and I said it with enough quiet force that he did.