Even that, I suspect, he found a way to file and forget.

I stopped, just for a moment, right beside him, close enough that only he could hear me.

“She knew,” I said quietly.

“From the very first day.

She knew the whole time.” I let him sit with that, let him understand that his mother had not been fooled, that the woman he had dismissed as confused had seen him clearly and seen me clearly and chosen between us with a sound and open mind.

Then I walked out of that office, out of St.