once fell asleep inside one during a move.
The woman smiled at me.
“Your brother worked himself to exhaustion.”
I corrected it automatically.
“Dad”.
Silence.
The girls looked at me.
I hadn’t even realized I’d said it.
***
We ended up at the old playground where I had spent hundreds of Sundays because free entertainment was the only kind I could reliably afford.
Emma sat next to me.
“Dad… Mom was right.”
Wait.
“You had another option,” she murmured.
“That part is true,” I admitted.
Grace whispered, “Do you wish you had known?” I stopped breathing.I looked at all three of them.
“I wish she had told me.”
Sophie’s face crumbled.
“You deserved the option.”
“You too.”
They remained silent.
Continue.
“I could have gone to Chicago.”
Emma started crying again.
“I could have let someone else raise them.”
Grace looked away.
“But that’s not the same as wishing you
