JJ’s words stuck with Adam. He’d been avoiding speaking with Iris, faking sleep when she entered his room, or pleading exhaustion at the first sign of conversation. He wasn’t sure he was ready. Maybe she wasn’t, either.
Still, the next time Iris came into his room, Adam found himself asking, “Have you seen him?”
“Who—your father?”
“Yes.”
“No, I have not,” she said, hanging her purse over the back of her chair before sitting.
“Are you going to?”
“I haven’t decided.”
Adam closed his eyes and let the stillness settle around him. He could feel Iris’s presence next to him like… like a bowl of her warm soup.
“You know,” she said, “raising you wasn’t easy—the circumstances and all—but you have no idea how happy I was that you were normal.”
Adam kept his eyes shut and let her talk.
“You
