Austin had it worse.

Someone asked whether his parents were going to be arrested, as if Elaine and Peter were villains in a story written before they knew its first chapter.

That evening both boys came to my house, where Elaine joined us after closing the garden center.

We made a plan: one brief statement if asked, no medical or adoption records online, and no comments about an ongoing investigation.

Austin wrote the first draft: We recently learned we are biological brothers.