Chapter 6 — You Don't Have to Remember Me Today
Claire arrived two days later.
She didn't run toward Nora.
Everyone expected her to.
She didn't.
Nora sat beside a social worker, holding a stuffed rabbit Ellie had given her.
Claire stopped in the doorway.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
"Nora."
The little girl stared at her.
No recognition.
Claire's knees nearly buckled.
But she didn't force the moment.
She sat on the floor several feet away.
"My name is Claire."
Nora hugged the rabbit.
Claire's voice trembled.
"I used to sing to you."
Nothing.
"I know you don't remember."
Tears rolled down Claire's face.
"You don't have to remember me today."
Nora watched her.
"You don't have to hug me. You don't have to call me Mommy. You don't have to do anything."
Claire wiped her face.
"I can wait."
That was the beginning.
Not a miraculous reunion.
A beginning.
Daniel later met Vivian one final time.
She looked smaller without the beautiful house around her.
"I loved you," she said.
Daniel believed she probably had.
That was what made everything harder.
"Maybe you did."
Vivian looked up hopefully.
"But love without truth becomes possession."
Her face crumpled.
"Will Ellie hate me?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Ellie is four."
Vivian looked confused.
"Her job isn't to decide what you deserve. Her job is to feel safe again."
Vivian began crying.
Daniel stood.
For months, he had imagined what he would say if he got this moment.
He had imagined anger.
Cruelty.
Revenge.
None of it mattered now.
There were two children waiting for adults to become trustworthy again.
That mattered.
Before Nora left, she found Daniel.
"Are you my daddy?"
He knelt.
"No, sweetheart."
Her face fell.
Daniel continued gently.
"The man in your picture was your daddy. His name was Nathan."
"He's gone?"
"Yes."
Nora stared at the floor.
Daniel wanted desperately to give her an easier answer.
He didn't.
Children who had lived inside lies deserved truth delivered gently.
"But I'm someone who cares what happens to you," he said.
Nora looked up.
"Even if you're not Daddy?"
"Especially then."
May you like
She considered this.
Then she reached for his hand.
