When the Eight-Year-Old Boy We Were Adopting Came Home With Everything He Owned in a Black Bag—Then My Missing Brother’s Watch Fell Onto His Bed

No dramatic threat.

Just debt and shame.

David drove to Portland.

Stayed with a friend.

Joined a recovery program.

Then decided he could not face us.

He wrote in one draft:

Every day I don’t call makes calling tomorrow harder.