The Photograph
Chapter 10 - The Photograph
While the board argued upstairs, Eli found the photograph.
It slipped from Claire’s bag when he searched for crayons.
Adrian saw it before she could hide it.
Claire had kept it.
Adrian touched the edge of the photograph.
“Who took this?”
“My father.”
“Why is my sweatshirt there?”
Claire looked toward the family room.
“Because I was foolish enough to think you might come.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Noah and Eli came home without his name on their birth certificates.
Claire did not tell them their father was dead.
She told them he was far away and did not know how to find them.
“That was kinder than the truth,” Adrian said.
“No,” Claire replied. “It was the only truth I could survive telling them.”
Adrian looked at the empty chair in the photograph.
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For five years, he had believed Claire abandoned him before their wedding.
In reality, he had abandoned three people in a hospital room he never knew existed.
