Chapter 9: The Signature
We signed in a conference room with a view of a parking lot and a water pitcher no one touched.
Ryan looked older. I did not inventory whether that gave me satisfaction. Satisfaction was a cheap fuel. Eli’s nap schedule was a better one. Ryan’s pen hovered over the acknowledgment paragraph; his attorney whispered; Ryan signed. The sound was small. The meaning was not.
Outside, Claire took Eli’s carrier so I could stand for a minute without performing strength. Ryan approached, stopped at a polite distance, and said, “I’m still his father.”
“Then act like the kind who doesn’t get to choose which child is worth a drive,” I said.
May you like
He flinched. Nodded. Left in a different elevator.
I went home, put Eli down, and slept three hours in a row for the first time since the corridor video. When I woke, the ceiling was only a ceiling. Progress.
