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Chapter Forty-Five: Silas

September 2026

"Surprise!" Bella's little voice fills my office as she runs to me. Nothing makes my heart happier than her constant excitement to see me.

Annika trails in behind her. "Joining me for lunch?" I say as I left Bella onto my shoulders.

She leans over, looking at me upside down. "I want chicken nuggets."

"Then, you can have chicken nuggets."

I take Annika's hand as we walk to the cafeteria. "Days like today, I wish the boys weren't in school." I miss the days of all the kids jumping in my lap, surprising me for lunch.

"I know. She will be joining them soon."

"I don't want to think about that." I pull her off my shoulders so that I can see her face. She clings to me like a spider monkey—arms around my neck, legs around my chest. My left hand supports her bum holding her up. Nik gripping my other hand. "You can never leave me, capeesh?"

"Capeesh."

"No boyfriends, either."

She pouts and holds up one little finger, "just one."

"Nope. You're my little girl. No boyfriends."

"But daddy... I just want one. You can pick him." She won't like that idea in ten years.

"Fine, only if I pick him. But not till you're in high school. Capeesh?"

"Capeesh." Nik, let's go of my hand when her phone rings.

"Hi, Becca." She says. Who the heck is Becca? Maybe another mom in the boy's class. You do have a play date tomorrow. "Yes, we will be there. See you soon."

"Becca?"

"Kal's social worker." Fuck. "She wants to see us in 45 minutes. You can leave, right?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Why?" Kal's birth mom will not be allowed to see him. My dukes are up.

"I don't know. She said it was time-sensitive and that she wanted to have that conversation in person."

"Looks like you are getting chicken nuggets at McDonald's."

"Yaaay!"

___________________

"Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"Of course." Bella eats her nuggets and colors quietly in the corner of Becca office on the kid's table.

As soon as we set in front of her, she cuts to the chase. "Something has come up with Kal's birth mother-"

"She can't meet him." I interrupt when my heart drops to the floor.

"No. No. It's not that."

"We don't want to open the adoption. He is my boy, and I won't share him. Silas is lucky I share him with him."

"It's not that I promise. She gave birth to a baby girl a week ago. She doesn't feel like she is fit to be a mother, and she is putting her up for adoption. She has the same biological father as Kal. So, she is Kal's only full sibling."

"And the father? He is okay with this?"

"He is incarcerated and will be for a very long time. The mother wanted to give you two the chance to have her first so that the brother and sister could be together." Holy Shit. I don't even kind of see this coming. I was ready to have the flight of my life. "I noticed that you reapplied for an infant a year and a half ago. I hope that is still-"