”You’re not stupid.”
“I wanted it to be him sometimes.”
That hurt.
Not because it offended me.
Because I understood.
Children can grow around an absence, but they still shape themselves around the empty space.
“I know,” I said.
He looked down at the letters.
“This is better, though.”
I swallowed.
“Yeah?”
He nodded.
“Yeah. Because this means somebody who actually loved me remembered every year.”
We drove home with the letters between us.
That night, we spread them across the kitchen table.
The same table where Adrian had opened
