“Not that.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “That’s… slightly better.”
I wiped my hands on a dish towel and sat down at the kitchen table. He hesitated for a moment before sitting across from me.
“I need you not to be mad,” he said quietly.
“I’m not making promises until I know what you did.”
He swallowed. “I took a DNA test.”
For a second, I just stared at him.
“You did what?”
“I know I should’ve told you,” he rushed on. “I just… I wanted to find him. Or someone connected to him. Maybe understand why he left.”
The words hit harder than I expected. Not because he was wrong to want answers, but because he had gone looking for them alone.
“Liam…” I said softly.
