The medical clinic had cheerful blue whales painted on the walls. Damian arrived completely alone, without Alyssa, without his mother, and without any bodyguards inside the building. The children watched him as one looks at someone familiar from a dream.
“Are you as rich as a bank or as rich as a dragon?” Atlas asked.
“Probably like a dragon,” Damian replied, trying to smile.
Kayden wanted to know if he liked cheese quesadillas. Elijah was much more direct.
“Why didn’t you come to see us when we were babies?” Elijah asked.
Damian lowered his head in shame.
“Because I did not know you had been born, but I should have listened much more closely to your mother,” Damian replied.
After the nurse took the DNA samples, Damian asked to speak with me privately for two minutes.
“I found your old phone call log, which showed eleven calls in one single night, and I also discovered that my mother signed your hospital discharge papers,” Damian said.
