“Why?”
“I can’t do that to Dad.”
“This isn’t about replacing Levi.”
“It feels like it.”
“Then ask him.”
Ethan looked at me.
“Ask Levi how he feels.”
Sadie was silent for several seconds.
Then she reached into her purse.
I recognized the envelope immediately.
Three weeks earlier, at my baby shower, I had seen her looking at it.
When I asked what it was, she had quickly tucked it away.
“Just an old thing from my past,” she had said.
Now she placed it in Ethan’s hands.
“I’ve carried this for more than thirty years.”
His fingers trembled.
“What is it?”
“Something I always planned to give you when you were ready.”
He opened the envelope.
Inside was a faded photograph.
A young man stood outside laughing, his head turned slightly toward the camera.
Dark hair.
Strong jaw.
And behind his ear—
A tiny triangular birthmark.
Exactly like Lily’s.
Ethan stopped breathing for a second.
“That’s Sebastian?”
Sadie nodded.
Under the photograph was an address written in faded blue ink.
For the rest of the day, Ethan barely spoke.
That evening, after Sadie left, he sat beside my hospital bed with Lily sleeping against his chest.
“I don’t know if I want to find him.”
“You don’t have to decide today.”
“What if Dad thinks I’m choosing someone else?”
“Then talk to him.”
He was quiet.
“He’s my father.”
“I know.”
