Now there was proof that the voice rejecting her hadn’t been mine.

“You shouldn’t need paperwork to believe you tried,” I told her.

“I didn’t need paperwork for myself,” she answered.

“I wanted Willa to know the truth one day, if she ever asks.”

We agreed to keep the documents in a secure folder until she was old enough to understand them.

The truth would not be used as a weapon to recruit her into either adult’s pain.

If she wanted to know more as she grew, we would explain it together, accurately and without hiding our own mistakes.