“Keep pedaling. I’ve got you.”
I stood halfway between William’s porch and my car, looking down at Nora.
Maybe William was telling the truth.
Maybe that little boy had grown into a man capable of abandoning his own child.
But if that were true, I needed to hear it from Caleb.
Not his father.
I turned around.
“William.”
He looked annoyed.
“I am not leaving until Caleb stands here himself and tells me he doesn’t want his daughter.”
“You’re behaving irrationally.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“For the first time in months, I’m being completely rational.”
Before William could answer, a man’s voice came from somewhere inside the house.
“Dad. Move.”
William stiffened.
Footsteps approached.
Then the door opened wider.
Caleb stepped onto the porch.
He looked exhausted.
His hair was unkempt.
Dark circles sat beneath his eyes.
For months, I had imagined confronting him.
I’d rehearsed furious speeches in the shower.
I’d imagined slapping him.
Crying.
Demanding explanations.
Begging for them.
But when he finally stood in front of me, every rehearsed word disappeared.
There was only one question that mattered.
“How long have you known who I was?”
Caleb looked at me.
He didn’t pretend not to understand.
“Since the bookstore.”
My heart sank.
“So meeting me wasn’t an accident.”
“I saw your name on the event announcement. I went because I wondered if…”
“If I was the girl with the red bicycle?”
His silence answered me.
“All those questions about my childhood,” I said. “You already knew.”
“Yes.”
“For nearly two years, Caleb?”
“I wanted to tell you.”
“But you didn’t.”
He lowered his eyes.
I felt something inside me fracture again.
“I told you what my mother went through working for a wealthy family. I told you how ashamed she felt afterward. You stood there listening while knowing I was talking about your father.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That the moment you knew who I was, you’d stop seeing me.”
His eyes flicked toward William.
“And start seeing him.”
For the first time, I understood Caleb’s fear.
But understanding wasn’t forgiveness.
“Then I told you I was pregnant,” I said. “And you proved that fear right by disappearing.”
Caleb went pale.
“That wasn’t why I left.”
“Then tell me why.”
