I Returned Home After 10 Years With the Son They Tried to Erase

Not in a shrine-like way. It did not feel frozen or haunted. It felt gently preserved, like a room waiting for the right person to open a drawer.

There were books on the shelf, a faded baseball cap hanging from the bedpost, a guitar in the corner, and glow-in-the-dark stars still scattered across the ceiling.

Leo stood in the middle of the room and looked up.

“He liked space?”

“He loved space,” Paul said from the doorway. “He wanted to be an engineer.”

Leo turned sharply. “I like engineering.”

Paul smiled. “I heard.”

Diane opened a desk drawer and pulled out a notebook.

“Noah kept sketches,” she said.

She handed it to Leo.

He opened it with reverence. Inside were drawings of bridges, small machines, a treehouse design, and something that looked like a rescue drone with notes written in Noah’s slanted handwriting.

Leo’s eyes widened.

“He drew robots too.”