He was older, softer around the jaw. But I would have known that face in a crowd of a thousand.
“Mara,” Kalen said quietly, as if he were afraid of his own voice. “Please. Don’t shut it.”
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The smile died.
I tried to anyway. My hand pushed on the door, but his foot slid into the gap.
“I’ve been looking for months,” he whispered. “Please. Just five minutes.”
“You need to leave. Right now.”
“I can’t.”
“Kalen, I swear to God, if you don’t…”
“Mom?”
Gabriella’s voice came from behind me.
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His foot slid into the gap.
I froze with my hand still on the door.
“Who is it?”
I turned. She was standing there behind me in the hallway, and I couldn’t get my mouth to work.
Kalen stepped forward into the light.
“Honey,” I said. My lips were trembling, and I hated that he could see it. “This… this is Kalen. Your biological father.”
Gabriella’s face went blank the way faces do when the brain refuses to catch up.
“Who is it?”
Kalen looked past me and smiled at her.
“Hi, sweetheart,” my ex said. “I’m sorry we’re only meeting now, but there’s a reason for that. And it wasn’t my fault.”
Then his eyes cut back to me.
“So. Are you going to tell her, or should I? You’ve got five minutes to tell her the truth, or I will!”
Devon appeared in the hallway. He’d heard enough.
“it wasn’t my fault.”
“All right,” my husband said calmly, one hand on the small of my back. “Sir, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but this isn’t the night. If you want to talk, call or something. You don’t ambush a family at 9 p.m.”
“With respect,” Kalen said, “I’ve waited 18 years. I’m not leaving.”
“Wait,” Gabriella said. “Wait, everybody, stop.”
She took a step toward me.
“You don’t ambush a family.”
“Mom. Is he telling the truth?”
I couldn’t answer.
“Mom.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
Something moved behind her eyes, and I felt it in my ribs.
“Come in,” my daughter said to Kalen.
