My parents refused to care for my younger kids while I tended to my oldest with leukemia; I called my ex-husband, but he said: “You’re just a poor writer, deal with it”

owed each other.

Then Mark said the thing that ended the conversation even though he didn’t realize it.

He said he should start seeing Theo and Wyatt regularly.

That it wasn’t right for a father to be cut off.

Belle beside him went very still.

A look passed between them.

And I remembered the phone call.

Now’s not a good time for us.

Us.

He had allowed a year of silence between himself and his sons.

Now that their mother was someone people recognized, he wanted back in.

I didn’t