She slipped a court order framed in my hands.
Claire wiped her face on stage.
“We just made the paperwork coincide with the truth.”
June stood up and hugged me. The whole room was standing. I don’t remember going out.
***
Three weeks later, he was back over the hardware store, hanging two frames on the wall by the window. The gas receipt note went to the left. Adoption documents were put on the right. I stayed there for a long time, looking at both of them.
I don’t remember going out.
For two decades, I had called it a sacrifice.
But standing in that quiet apartment, I finally understood that it wasn’t. It was the life I had chosen. And at some point along the way, I had chosen back.
I sat on the couch, picked up my phone and moved to a number I hadn’t dialed in 12 years.
Diana.
I pressed the call before I could convince myself.
