"I didn't know with certainty that he was yours."
"Mother did."
"Your mother believed he was yours."
"You could have asked me to take a test."
Richard looked away.
Adrian's voice dropped.
"You didn't want the answer."
His father remained silent.
"You didn't want Clara in this family."
"Her background was complicated."
Adrian stared at him.
"Say what you mean."
Richard's jaw tightened.
"She had no family connections. No financial stability. You were twenty-five."
"And Victoria did."
Richard did not answer.
"That was it?"
"It wasn't that simple."
"It sounds very simple."
"We believed Victoria was a better match for the future you were building."
Adrian felt something inside him break.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just permanently.
"You traded my life for a business arrangement."
"No."
"You decided who I should love."
"We were trying to prevent you from making a mistake."
"My son learned to ride a bicycle without me."
Richard's expression changed.
Adrian continued.
"My daughter took her first steps without me. Noah had birthdays I didn't know existed. Clara gave birth without me knowing she was pregnant."
His voice trembled.
"You don't get to call that protection."
Richard looked down.
"I made mistakes."
"No."
Adrian shook his head.
"You made choices."
That distinction mattered.
"Mistakes are forgetting a birthday. Sending the wrong document. Missing a flight."
He pointed toward the desk.
"You received an email telling you that you had a grandson."
Richard's eyes filled with tears.
"And you decided I didn't deserve to know."
"I thought there would be time."
"There was time."
Adrian stepped back.
"You just gave it to someone else."
He left without saying goodbye.
For several months, Adrian stopped speaking to his father.
He focused on the children.
Noah began kindergarten.
Adrian attended the first day.
He arrived twenty minutes early because he was terrified of being late.
Noah wore a blue backpack with dinosaurs on it.
Clara knelt and fixed the boy's collar.
"You have your lunch?"
"Yes."
"Water bottle?"
"Yes."
"Pencils?"
"Mom."
"I'm checking."
Noah rolled his eyes.
Adrian smiled.
Then Noah turned to him.
"You're coming back later?"
The question sounded casual.
But Adrian knew better now.
Noah still asked versions of it constantly.