Chapter 8 - A Result Is Not a Relationship
Five days later Rosa sat across from Helen at the same cramped office. An envelope lay between them. She hadn't slept much.
"We can read it together," Helen offered.
"Just tell me."
The accredited test confirmed what Rosa had believed from the start. Alessandro was Lily's biological father.
Rosa stared at the paper. "I thought certainty would make this easier."
"Sometimes it simply removes a place to hide."
Alessandro received the result at his lawyer's office. He read the conclusion, set the page flat, and asked for a minute alone.
A document had made him a father on paper. It hadn't taught him how to comfort Lily or what she liked for breakfast.
Rosa agreed to a meeting with both attorneys present.
"I'm not asking her to call me anything," Alessandro said immediately.
"Good, because she won't know what the word means yet."
"I want to help support her."
"That's an obligation, not a gift you can take away if you're angry."
"I know."
"You keep saying that."
He swallowed. "Then give me something specific to do."
"Learn her routine. Follow it. Be there when you say you will. Don't introduce her to anybody who treats her like a bargaining chip."
Helen added, "We can document a gradual parenting plan. No one is asking a three-year-old to absorb an adult's revelations overnight."
Rosa handed him one photograph. Lily asleep on the rug with Bun tucked beneath her arm.
"She sings when she's nervous," Rosa said. "She hates the sound of hand dryers. She wants strawberries in a separate bowl, not touching her toast."
He studied the photograph longer than the laboratory paper.
"And the rabbit?" he asked.
"Bun. You could've learned that in the kitchen."
"I should have."
At the door, he asked, "Would you allow one short meeting in a public place?"
Rosa considered him. "Twenty minutes. I'll be there. You don't bring gifts."
May you like
His face softened. "What should I bring?"
"Yourself," she said. "On time."
