Evelyn was by the door, but her path was blocked. Aurora was clinging to her legs, and Anna was crying, her small face crumpled as she looked at me.
“You promised we could sleep in her room!” Anna wailed.
That wasn’t exactly the promise—I remembered Evelyn saying, “We’ll think about it later.” But that wasn’t how they’d heard it.
The crying girl stormed over to me. “She’s leaving! You can’t let her leave!” she practically screamed, her tiny body shaking with fury.
“Listen, Aurora—”
“I’m Anna!” she shrieked, cutting me off. “You don’t even know who’s who! Mom always knew. Evelyn knows too. You can’t let her go, you… you… you silly!” She’d called me that again, just like she had when she first arrived.
I opened my mouth to retort—to tell her she couldn’t speak to me that way—but before I could get a word out, Evelyn spoke.
“Hey, Anna… come here.”
The girl obeyed. Evelyn gently pried Aurora off her legs and knelt before them. She spoke slowly, her eyes locked on theirs.
“You need to be brave. He’s your father, and everything will be okay.”
Aurora shook her head in distress. Anna retorted, her voice breaking, “He’s not our father! We don’t even know him! He doesn’t talk to us. He let Rory get lost, he can’t tell us apart, and he’s… he’s letting you leave! Please, Evelyn… Our mommy left us… Don’t you do it too. Please… don’t go.”
That plea hit me with a force I couldn’t explain. A sharp, unexpected pang of sadness struck me right in the chest.
For the first time, I truly understood the depth of their devastation. They were grieving their mother’s abandonment.
And maybe Evelyn was right. Maybe Anna was, too.
I hadn’t been giving them what they needed.
And for the first time since discovering I was a father, I felt a feeling entirely related to that fact: I felt like complete shit.
Aurora threw her arms around Evelyn again, who held her close, visibly fighting back her own tears. This was hurting her, too.
Still holding Aurora, she looked at Anna. “You can’t sleep in my room. You have to stay here with your father. But… we’ll see each other tomorrow, okay?”
“So…” Anna sobbed. “You’re not leaving?”
Evelyn gave her a soft, genuine smile. “No, sweetheart. I’m not leaving. I will have to someday, but… not today, and not for a while. Deal?”
Anna let out a joyful scream and started jumping around the room. Looking confused but hopeful, Aurora broke the hug and took a step back to search Evelyn’s face.
Then came my surprise.
Evelyn repeated herself, as if Aurora hadn’t been standing right there. And she did it very slowly, making deliberate gestures with her hands as she spoke.
“I… am… not… going… away.”
A huge, radiant smile broke out on Aurora’s face. She, too, began to jump, and the two of them climbed onto the bed, holding hands and bouncing on the mattress.
Evelyn stood and turned toward me, wiping a tear from her cheek as I approached.
“Thank you,” I said. “I promise, you will be very well compensated for this.”
She shook her head. “It’s not for you, and it’s not for the money. But you were right about one thing. In just one day, these girls have gotten attached. I can’t abandon them now, when they’re so lost.”
“Still… thank you.”
“I’ll meet you all tomorrow at nine in the lobby?”
