me.
I unfolded it with shaking hands.
The handwriting was Noah’s.
Daniel,
You don’t know me, but I think someone I love may be connected to you. I don’t want to cause pain. I just think secrets have a way of making good people lonely. If I’m wrong, forgive me. If I’m right, maybe one day we can all sit at the same table and stop pretending missing people don’t matter.
I pressed the paper to my chest.
Leo leaned against my side.
“He did all this?” he asked.
Daniel crouched to Leo’s level.
“And you must be Leo.”
Leo nodded.
Daniel smiled, and in that smile I saw my mother.
Then he looked at the sketchbook under Leo’s arm.
“What have you got there?”
“My dad’s drawings,” Leo said. “I’m going to finish one.”
Daniel’s eyes warmed.
“I run a workshop with tools, parts, and a lot of kids
