Come help me with these branches,\u201d I said, deflecting as I always did.<\/p>\n
Leo squatted beside me, his thin arms picking up the smaller twigs. \u201cMichael\u2019s dad came to school today for the festival. And Sarah\u2019s dad brought her a new backpack. And\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d I interrupted gently. \u201cI know all the other children have fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo where\u2019s mine?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years. A decade had passed since the day my world fell apart, and I still didn\u2019t have an answer that wouldn\u2019t break his heart the way mine had been broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour father\u2026\u201d I started, then stopped. How do you explain to a child that the man who helped create him vanished like smoke before he was born? \u201cYour father loved you very much,\u201d I finally said, the same hollow words I\u2019d repeated countless times. \u201cBut he had to go away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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