Desa Nin Leean was happy.
Basking in the warm sunlight that came through her living room window, she watched her son Brendan crawling across the hardwood floor. The child had a smile that melted her heart, and he giggled as he scampered up to her feet. With black hair and slightly tilted eyes, Brendan resembled her partner Kalia, though, in truth, neither she nor Kalia had carried the boy to term.
Sometimes, she wondered what she would say when her son started asking about his birth parents. It wouldn’t take long for Brendan to realize that he and Desa looked nothing alike. She had a darker, olive complexion and features that were more common among people from the east coast. Brendan, on the other hand, would fit right in here on the western plains.
Seated in her mother’s old rocking ch
