Only once.

He looked smaller behind the glass.

Older.

Gray.

For thirty-one years, that face had been part of every morning of my adult life.

He picked up the phone.

“So this is what you wanted?”

I almost laughed.

“You think this is about wanting something?”

“You destroyed me.”

“No, Mark.”

I leaned closer to the glass.

“I found you.”

He stared.

I continued.

“There’s a difference.”

For the first time in thirty-one years, he had nothing to say.

I hung up.

And walked away.

But the most surprising ending came a year later.

At Daniel’s house.

On a Sunday afternoon.

When a little girl ran across the lawn yelling—

“Grandma Carol!”

—

PART 8 — THE FAMILY WE NEVER EXPECTED

Her name was Lily.

She was four years old.

And she was Jenna’s daughter.

Not Daniel’s.

Not Mark’s.

She had been born years before Jenna ever met our family and