When the order was approved, I signed Serena Rochester on the papers prepared for the next steps.

My signature was the same hand that had signed the old contract.

I did not have to become somebody incapable of mistakes in order to begin again.

“I want my daughter to know her people,” I told Gavin.

“She will.”

“And I want her to know I had a life before you found me.”

He nodded.

“I want to know that life too.”