“After I gave birth, I brought my baby to meet the grandpa who raised me — but the moment he saw her face, he burst into tears and said, “This is impossible. You have no idea what you’ve done.” My grandpa was the only father I ever had after my parents died in a car crash. So when I got pregnant at 27 and the man I loved disappeared the same night I told him, Grandpa was the one who held me together. He had never met Caleb. I had kept putting off introducing them, telling …

“Say hi to your great-grandpa,” I said, carefully settling her into the crook of his arm.

I expected him to cry.

I did not expect him to look terrified.

He stared down at Nora, and at first his whole face softened.

Then he tilted her toward the afternoon light.

His gaze moved from one mismatched eye to the other.

Then to the cleft in her chin.

The color vanished from his face.

“Grandpa?”

His hands began trembling around her.

“Emily. Who is her father?”

I gave a nervous laugh. “You know his name. Caleb.”

Whatever Grandpa had been afraid of, hearing that name confirmed it.

He sank into the wicker chair.

“Caleb. And his father?”

“William. Grandpa, you’re scaring me.”

He pressed his lips against Nora’s forehead and shut his eyes.

“No, sweetheart. God, no.”

The porch seemed to tilt beneath me.

“Grandpa. Please. Are you telling me Caleb and I are…”