“I, the undersigned, request the court grant full and permanent legal parentage—” he stopped, his voice catching on the word permanent.
Behind him, I could see Mom pressing a hand to her mouth on the porch, and past her, Jonah and Lily standing frozen in the doorway, not fully understanding yet but clearly sensing this was the kind of moment you didn’t interrupt.
“Keep going,” I said. “It gets better.”
He didn’t keep reading out loud. He just kept reading, silently, his thumb pressed hard against the edge of the page like he was afraid it might disappear if he let go.
My father’s voice cut through the quiet driveway.
“What is this? Some kind of joke?”
I looked at him for the first time since he’d handed me the keys.
His face had gone somewhere between confused and offended, an expression I’d never actually seen on him before, mostly because I’d never spent enough time around him to catalog his expressions in the first place.
