“I feel like I’m betraying Dad.”

“You’re not replacing him.”

Eventually, Ethan called Levi.

I couldn’t hear what Levi said on the other end, but I watched the tension slowly disappear from my husband’s shoulders.

“Are you sure, Dad?”

A long pause.

Then Ethan closed his eyes.

When the call ended, he looked at me.

**“He said being my father has been the honor of his life. He said learning where I came from doesn’t change that.”**

Many months later, the address eventually led us to a house three states away.

A woman named Marlene answered.

The moment she saw Ethan, she stared at his face.

Then she quietly said,

**“Oh. You must be his.”**

Sebastian, we learned, had passed away years earlier.

There would be no dramatic reunion.

Instead, Marlene gave Ethan something quieter but still meaningful.