A quiet filled the room, broken only by the faint splash of water as Sophia moved her tiny arms, unaware of the storm gathering above her.
“Seen where?” I pressed, though a part of me didn’t want to know, didn’t want to step into whatever memory he was about to open.
He hesitated too long, and in that pause, something colder than fear settled into my chest, a slow realization that this wasn’t just about the baby.
“When I was younger,” he finally said, voice strained, “there was someone in my family… someone who had the same mark.”
The way he said “someone” made it sound less like a person and more like a warning, something that shouldn’t be named too directly.
I looked back at Sophia, at her small, fragile body, at the rise and fall of her chest, steady and innocent, untouched by whatever story he carried.
“And?” I asked quietly, forcing the word out, even though my instinct was to pull away, to protect the moment from whatever came next.
“And it didn’t end well,” he replied, his eyes flickering downward, unable to meet mine now, as though the truth had weight he couldn’t lift.
The room seemed to shrink around us, the warm light turning heavy, the air thick with something unspoken that pressed against my ribs.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said quickly, too quickly, my voice rising just enough to betray the doubt I was trying to bury.
“It could just be a birthmark. Babies have marks all the time. It doesn’t mean she’s…” I stopped, refusing to complete the sentence forming in my mind.
He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his damp hair, pacing a step back, then forward again, like a man trapped between two doors.
“You didn’t see what I saw,” he insisted, his voice cracking slightly, not from anger but from something closer to fear he didn’t want to admit.
“And you didn’t tell me any of this before,” I shot back, feeling a flicker of frustration rise beneath the confusion, sharp and unexpected.
He froze at that, as if my words had struck a place he’d been carefully avoiding, his shoulders tightening almost imperceptibly.
“I didn’t think it mattered anymore,” he said slowly, each word measured, like he was choosing the least damaging version of the truth.
“But now it does?” I asked, stepping closer to him, lowering my voice instinctively so it wouldn’t reach the child between us.
He nodded once, stiffly, his gaze drifting back to Sophia again, lingering on that mark as though it might change if he stared long enough.
“Call Kendra,” he repeated, softer this time, but more insistent, like the request itself was the only thing keeping him anchored.
I glanced at the phone on the counter, then back at him, then at Sophia, who had begun to fuss lightly, her small face scrunching in discomfort.
The normalcy of her tiny cry felt almost surreal, like it belonged to a different scene, one where parents didn’t look at their child with fear.
“What exactly are we asking her?” I said, my hand hovering over the phone but not picking it up yet, caught in the weight of the moment.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again, clearly realizing he didn’t have a simple answer, or maybe not one he wanted to say out loud.
