About the adoption files.
About the way he looked toward the house before answering me.
About his fear that someone would accuse him of being confused.
And about the fact that he was trying to give me something he believed he should have given me years earlier.
The front door had barely closed behind him when Natalie turned on me.
“You made me look like an idiot.”
I could not believe that was what she had taken from the entire conversation.
“You embarrassed him first.”
“You always choose him over me.”
That accusation had probably been waiting longer than the argument itself.
I looked straight at her.
“He spent my entire childhood choosing me.”
Neither of us had much to say after that.
But Dad’s request stayed with me.
