I considered lying.
Instead, I sat down. And for the first time in years, I told my daughter about Jack. Not everything. Just enough. How we’d met. How we’d planned a future together. How he disappeared from a café 20 years earlier and never came back.
By the time I finished, Maddy looked stunned. “Wait.” She pointed toward the door. “Miles’s dad?”
I nodded. “The same Jack.”
“You’re serious?”
“Unfortunately.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke. Then Maddy did something I hadn’t expected. She laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it was absurd.
“Mom.”
“I know.”
“No, seriously.”
“I know.”
“My boyfriend’s father is your first love?”
I rubbed my forehead. “Apparently.”
The situation was ridiculous. And somehow it became even more ridiculous over the following months, because Miles wasn’t going anywhere. The relationship grew serious. Family dinners became normal, birthdays became normal, and Sunday visits became normal.
