“Mom and Dad, please stop calling this temporary when you talk to Joanna. It isn’t temporary unless Joanna wants it to be. I cannot keep asking her to build her life around the possibility that I might suddenly become someone different.”
I looked at Denise.
Her eyes were wet.
Ethan went on.
“I signed the guardianship papers. Joanna should have them. If she wants to raise Ethan, she should never have to wonder whether I can walk in one day and simply take him away.”
The auditorium disappeared around me.
I heard only one phrase.
I signed the guardianship papers.
I turned slowly toward my parents.
Mom stared down at her hands.
Dad looked older than he had that morning.
“What papers?” I whispered.
Neither answered.
Onstage, Ethan lowered the letter.
“I spent four years trying to understand why Mom never knew that letter existed.”
His voice wavered for the first time.
