Renata nodded and picked up her lunch box.

Then she stopped at the doorway.

“Daddy, if I love Mommy, do I still get to love you the same?”

“You do not have to choose between loving me and asking what happened.”

She came back and hugged my waist, sandwich crumbs on her sleeve.

I brushed them away before she left for school.

At eleven, Samuel turned a yellow slip toward me and pointed to the line beneath the next court date.

“The adoption challenge cannot move forward unless the claimant verifies the identity listed in the original file.”