The Secret Wasn’t the Hospital
For a second, I couldn’t speak.
Because James had always told me his father was “gone.”
He didn’t say dead, exactly.
He just shut down whenever I asked.
Like the topic was sealed behind concrete.
“You told me you didn’t have a father,” I said slowly.
James’s jaw tightened.
“I didn’t,” he said. “Not in the way that mattered.”
Graham’s eyes filled, but he didn’t look away.
“I failed him,” he admitted. “A long time ago.”
