Down the hall was a small room with drawings taped to the walls: houses, trees, and three stick figures holding hands. A woman, a man, and a boy in the middle. The boy slept, a stuffed bear tucked under his chin. I felt something gentle unlock inside me. I touched the soft wave of his hair and whispered, “He is beautiful.”
“He is the best gift I have ever received,” she said.
At the door that night, Althea thanked me for coming. The rain had lifted. The air smelled like wet earth and a fresh start.
“I have thought of you often,” she said. “When Daniel asked why he did not have a father, I told him his father lived in heaven. The honest truth is that heaven has always had your face.”
“If you want,” I said, “I can visit him sometimes.”
She weighed the moment, then nodded. “I think he would like that very much.”
We hugged for a long time. The past felt less like a wound and more like a scar, the kind you can touch without breaking.
Weekends, Cardboard Castles, and a New Kind of Family
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