Rob is struggling to recover from a horrific family tragedy when a strange man treats his broken family to a night out and asks him a question. He does not realize the ramifications of his answer until it is staring him in the face, and then he must decide whether he wants to live with them.

---

Tiny opaque flakes floated through the thick dirty air in the street, creating, for a moment, the illusion of perfection. A cold chill occasionally stirred their mild descent, blowing them off their predictable course and into unkempt bushes or the cracks in the wood paneling of tiny houses. A poor unimpressive ground was all that waited for them at the bottom: the remnants of a sidewalk, so far gone that the grime residing at its surface left no visible evidence that a concrete sidewalk had ever existed beneath it.

Some of the houses on the tiny block were barely houses at all: shacks made for people just daring to live in them, the final symbol of a broken past and hopeless future. Roofs slacked sluggishly when they should have been straight, and the old wood panels below them were no better at keeping aligned with the rocky ground on which they stood. The walls of the little houses looked old; as if they had existed far longer than the city itself had. Some were worn to nothing, leaving large holes that exposed their contents to the frigid air. Some planks of wood in the walls were swollen and uneven. Where grass should have been there was only dirt, cold as stone and just as hard. Sharp rocks rose from the uneven surfaces unless covered by garbage or items simply too large or too heavy to be carried into the tiny houses. Silence was a virtue in a place like this. It meant that everyone was committed to keeping up the illusion of content. It meant that everyone could pretend there was peace.

But where there should have been silence there was a cry. It was a cry of innocence, a cry of pure untainted desire that rises from the throat of an infant that is truly in need. A baby boy, so cold that his tiny lips were blue and his eyes remained squeezed shut, cried at his mother’s breast for food, warmth, anything that she could give him.

The woman whose arms were wrapped around the baby held him so close to her that she would have thought that he could not breathe if it were not for his staid crying. Huddled in a chair in one of the tiny houses, she rocked him back and forth and tried not to feel the harsh wind biting at the back of her neck. Below the baby’s crying she was humming a steady, pleasant tune that did not seem to match her sad blue eyes.

The door to the tiny house creaked open, and in stepped a man with eyes sadder than hers. He shut the heavy swollen door and in one swift movement had his coat off his shoulders. But the hook beside the door remained bare; instead he walked over to the woman, kissed her on the forehead, and draped the heavy coat around her shoulders.

The woman looked up at him with a mixture of graciousness and fierce love before standing up and pressing herself to him, the baby still in her arms. He embraced her, looking down at his crying son with dark blue eyes.

“I got paid today,” the man said.

His wife looked up at him from beneath her long beautiful lashes. This was not unexpected news.

“I’m taking you and Ayden shopping today.”

Immediately the woman took a step away from him, and her gaze held a childish kind of wonder and puzzlement that made the hole in the man’s heart smolder. “Rob…”

The smile on his lips changed very slightly. He put his hands out at his sides as if he wanted to shoo away her worry. “You need clothes. The baby needs clothes.”

Very slowly her gaze shifted from him to the baby. Cradled by his father’s warm coat, he had finally stopped crying. He was dressed drably: a pale blue onesie, made duller by age and use. Thin spots were wearing in it where the baby had grown and stretched the fabric to its limit. Even when wrapped in a heavy woolen blanket he was still not warm enough.

She was dressed no better in a thick woolen sweater with thin spots threatening to turn into holes at the slightest tug. She wore a dull pair of jeans that were almost white in the seat and knees; one knee was torn and the hem of one pant leg dragged on the ground. Her shoes were in more or less good shape, but barely fit around her thick cotton socks.

She sighed, looking up with a resigned smile. “The baby needs clothes.”

“Amelia. You both need clothes,” Rob corrected.

Her smile broadened reluctantly, and she nodded. With slow, agile footsteps she crossed the room and handed Rob the baby. Then she slid the jacket more securely over her narrow shoulders and zipped up the lower part of it. It was much too big for her; when she took the baby back from him, she could zip the jacket up to her chest and still have enough room for the baby and her arms in the jacket.

Rob pushed the door open for her and together they walked down the street without a sidewalk until they reached the better part of town where shops stayed open late for people who got off work after four. People walked around, speaking into ear pieces and cell phones, typing messages into tiny screens. It was quickly made clear to them that despite their meager clothing, no one noticed them.

When they reached a small clothing store, Rob stopped and pulled out his wallet. From it he produced forty dollars. He held it out to Amelia.

“Take this, okay? I’ll take Ayden and go look for some baby clothes. You buy anything you want.”

Staring down at the money, Amelia’s eyes once again filled with the childish wonder that Rob loved so much about her; for a moment it hid all the sadness. She unzipped the jacket and handed Ayden to his father before gingerly taking the two bills and sliding her arms back into the jacket. Then she reached out to pull his head down to her level so she could kiss him. All the gratification that was not said was held in that kiss.

“When should we meet back here?” she asked, looking around the store experimentally.

“Would six be okay?” He slid his wallet back into his pocket as he rocked the fussing baby.

She nodded, gave him one last look of admiration, and then disappeared into the store, letting herself become lost in the racks of clothes. Rob watched her go, glanced up at the clock, and then headed toward the corner of the store where baby clothes lined the shelves.

It seemed that children were everywhere: running in front of him, jumping out of clothes racks, crawling along the floor. They had claimed the store as their own on this cold winter’s day, and their delighted laughter filled the air. The sound was a painful memory for him. Such a short time ago, his life had been filled with that noise, the noise of children’s laughter and screams, their delighted cheers, and even the occasional cries of a tantrum. It was something that for too long he had taken for granted. Now he would have given anything for one of the young voices around him to be from his children.

He found himself standing before a rack of baby clothes too small for Ayden. The baby was five months old now, and the clothes before him would not fit him when he was three. He turned, trying to pull his mind to the present, and find the right set of clothes for his son. The baby gurgled at his shoulder. A minute later he was going through clothes in shades of bright blue and turquoise, barely seeing what the clothes were and concerned only with the price tag. Balancing the baby on one shoulder, he combed the rack with his free hand.

“Excuse me.”

He stopped, surprised by the voice at his side. For a moment he thought that a child was talking to someone else somewhere behind him, but as he began going through clothes again, he felt a tug on his pant leg. “Um, mister?”

He looked down. Standing at his side was a little girl with big green eyes and dark hair. She had a pleasant, delighted smile on her face, the kind that he recognized right away when he saw it. The girl was not looking at him: she was looking at Ayden.

“Um, that’s a cute baby. What’s his name?” she asked, allowing her eyes for a second to meet his.

Rob swallowed the stone in his throat. “Ayden.”

Her smile grew to a wide grin as she stared up at the baby delightedly. “Can I see him?”

As if his legs were mechanical, he found himself kneeling by the little girl, holding the baby in his arms. Ayden looked up at the girl with sleepy blue eyes; he seemed uninterested, but conscious of her interest in him.

“Aww.” A giggle like a ringing bell sprang from her throat and she allowed one finger to brush his head lightly. “He’s so cute.”

Rob nodded absently, watching her with a timid interest.

“Hi, baby Ayden,” she cooed, wiggling her finger in his face. The baby reached for it, but missed, and she drew it back quickly, giggling again. She looked up at Rob, and he knew that he had made her day.

He slowly rose, and the little girl bounced away at her mother’s call. As the girl rounded a corner and disappeared, Rob put his arm on the wall and pressed his forehead into the crook of his arm. Grace had dark brown hair. She had brown eyes. She had a laugh like silver bells and loved to coo at her baby brother. She was bubbly, hyper, but if there was anything that could make her sit still it was Ayden in her lap. She would wiggle her finger in the air for him, and she would let him catch it before bursting into a fit of beautiful giggles that would encourage the baby to do the same. She was wonderful. And she, like the little girl in the store, was gone now. And he would never see her again.

Ayden grabbed a hold of his shirt collar and was pulling it roughly. Rob gently grabbed the baby’s hand and forced the fabric out of his fingers. In the same moment he regained his composure. He stood back up, returning to the rack, and forced all his concentration into finding clothes for Ayden.

Memories were something that Rob had never been good at controlling. One by one they snuck up on him, and before he could help it they were plaguing his thoughts, creating dancing pictures in his head that made the hole in his heart smolder again. Three young faces, three sets of bright eyes seemed to stare back at him in the baby clothes, blocking his view of what was before him to throw him into a painful past. The laughter of children not in the present filled his ears, and a time when he would have joined it seemed infinitely far away.

An hour went by before Rob had a substantial amount of clothes for Ayden: shirts and pants, a warm cap, warm booties, and a bag of diapers that would take him through the next couple weeks. As he searched for a cash register, balancing the baby in one hand and the clothes in the other, he was vaguely aware of someone behind him.

“Excuse me… sir?”

He turned around to face the man who had addressed him. He was a tall slim man, only slightly shorter than Rob. His clothes looked new and expensive; he sported a dark business suit with gold cuff links and a silk shirt. His shoes were new black leather. He had very dark skin and short black hair, and his large round eyes were dark brown. Seeing that he had his attention, he held out his hand. In it he held Rob’s wallet, and he spoke with an accent that Rob did not recognize. “Is this yours?”

Baffled, he stared down at it blankly for a moment, wondering how it could have possibly escaped his snug pant pocket. He nodded slowly, reaching out to take the wallet and open it up to make sure it was his. Seeing his picture inside, he nodded again, murmuring, “Thank you so much.”

The man smiled a warm smile and nodded. His eyes slowly drifted to Ayden. “Is that your son?”

Rob nodded, readjusting his hold on the baby self-consciously.

“He’s a handsome boy. How old is he?” the man asked, returning his gaze to Rob.

For a moment he fumbled the number around in his head, trying to pick the right one. “Five months,” he said at last, sliding his wallet back into his pocket. And then, before he made the conscious decision to do so, he said, “His name is Ayden.”

At the sound of his name the baby started to squirm and babble, knocking half of the clothes out of his father’s hand. Rob started to stoop down to pick them up, but the man was already kneeling on the floor. As he stood, the clothes were handed back to him.

“Thank you,” he said again.

The man’s warm smile returned. “Don’t mention it. Do you have any more?”

He stared at the man for a long minute, and then looked down at his son, trying to decide how to answer the question. “N…No.”

The man must have heard the melancholy in his voice, because his smile slowly disappeared, and for the first time he seemed to take a good look at the man standing before him. “I’m sorry. I don’t…”

“It’s alright,” Rob said quickly, still looking at Ayden.

“No. It’s not.” The man looked away, and for a moment Rob believed that he would walk away, but then he turned back toward him and said, “Why don’t I treat you and your family to dinner?” Upon Rob’s silence, he added, “It seems like you could use a nice night out.”

His eyes quickly darted back up to the man, scrutinizing his sincerity. He wanted to be suspicious of him, but looking at his face, his warm eyes, he could see no signs that what he said could possibly be a jest. He was well-dressed, and well-kept; it was not such a far-fetched idea to think that this man could afford to feed him and his family. Rob had never seen a less intimidating, more sincere person in his life. And he hated to turn down a free meal. “Alright.”

The man’s warm smile turned to one of satisfaction. “Absalom. Nice to meet you.”

“Robert.” He nodded curtly, hoping that Absalom would understand that his hands were full.

The man did not seem to mind. “I will meet you and your family at the front of the store at six and take you anywhere you want to go. Alright?”

This time, Rob nodded enthusiastically. Ayden giggled on his shoulder. “Yes. Thank you.”

Another blissful smile spread across his face, and he nodded goodbye before sticking his hands in his pockets and turning away. Rob turned, again in the pursuit of a register. He had twenty minutes to find Amelia and tell her what blessing had been bestowed upon them.

Amelia was uneasy. That was her nature. She wore her new warm hat low on her face and held Ayden close to her as she rode in the back seat of Absalom’s silver Porsche.

Despite the tension that the woman radiated, Absalom was relaxed, nonchalant. His eyes scanned the streets as they strode down the road. “Where would you like to eat?” he asked pleasantly.

Rob glanced back at Amelia, who met his eyes meekly. Seeing that she had no place in mind, he turned forward again and shrugged. “Surprise us.”

Absalom smiled his wide, glorious smile and nodded, pulling into a parking spot in front of an Italian restaurant. He got out and humbly held the door open for Amelia. Momentarily throwing her apprehension aside at the chivalry of the gesture, she slid out of the car, nodding graciously to him, and walked around to the other side to join her husband on the sidewalk. They waited for Absalom to catch up to them and hurried into the restaurant.

A good meal was something that none of the family had had in a long time, and it showed by the sheer amount of food Ayden gobbled down. Amelia spared a good quarter of her dish to feed to the baby, all the while looking between him and Absalom with a shifting expression of adoration and graciousness. Absalom, who ordered only a salad, returned her look as humbly as he could.

“So, Absalom,” Rob asked as their dishes were taken away, “Where are you from?”

The man slowly pulled his eyes away from the woman and the baby as he answered. “I was born in Nigeria, but my family moved to the United States when I was ten. I have lived here ever since.”

He looked at him with wide eyes, nodding, and smiled. “Now I know why I didn’t recognize your accent.”

Absalom let out a short good-natured laugh. “Yes. Many don’t.” He took a sip from his glass before looking back at Rob. “Have you always lived here?”

From the corner of his eye he saw Amelia tilt her head toward him, and he knew that the sadness in her eyes was beginning to show again. “Yes, more or less,” he stammered.

The answer was not enough to ward off his curiosity. “Did you used to live somewhere else?”

“We used to live in a different part of the city,” Amelia murmured grimly, wiping Ayden’s face with a napkin.

Sincere curiosity shined in the man’s dark eyes, as well as something that Rob could not fully identify. “Oh?”

“There was… an accident.” Rob murmured slowly, looking back at him from the corner of his eyes. He waited silently, watching Absalom put the pieces of the puzzle together, and then a moment later another course of thought flashed across his face before he frowned sympathetically and he nodded.

“A fire?” he guessed gently, rubbing his hands together.

“A car accident.” Rob quickly glanced back at his wife. She was still tending to the baby, pretending not to listen. He slowly looked back at Absalom, and even though he knew that she could hear him anyway, his voice dropped to nearly a whisper. “We lost everything.”

“Everything.” He repeated the word slowly, solemnly, and his eyes grew sadder as he nodded again. Again Rob saw his mind working, and for a moment he was overwhelmed by the subtle intelligence of this man. As he watched the understanding register to him, he knew that his questions would not lead them into painful detail.

Before the moment could be drawn out too long Absalom stood up from his chair, planting his hands firmly on the table in front of him. “I suppose I’ll pay the bill,” he said decisively, “and we shall go.”

The night was dark and bitterly cold when the silver car pulled up to the little drafty house. Absalom carried in Amelia’s bags while she quickly marched up the steps, unlocked the door, and went inside. As she tried to quiet Ayden’s crying she instructed him to place the bags by the wall where he had come in, and she thanked him sincerely.

“My pleasure,” he said, his voice barely audible over the baby’s cries. He turned as Rob walked in after him and placed the plastic bags full of baby clothes by the wall. As he straightened up Absalom asked, “Rob, may I have a word with you?”

Rob looked up at him curiously, and before he could reply he saw Amelia slip out of the room and into the bedroom. When he heard the soft click of the door, he turned back to Absalom and nodded.

Standing in the dim room, lit only with a single light bulb, he was surprised by how easily he could see Absalom’s soft smile and dark, warm eyes. “I have a question for you, my friend.”

He nodded and waited, sticking his cold hands into his pockets. The house did not feel much warmer than the outside air. From the other room Ayden’s crying began to quiet down.

“Would you give up everything you have now if it meant getting back everything you’ve lost?”

The question seemed odd; it was nothing Rob had never thought about before, but it was not a hard one to answer. Every day he wished that he could hold his three children again, see their faces and hear them laugh. He would give anything to get back the life they had had before the car crash, when they had a home that did not let the wind bite their skin and leave them to wander in the dark. He would give anything to have what he had lost. And as he stood in this tiny house that was little more than four wooden walls and a roof, it seemed clear to him that he had absolutely nothing to lose.

Absalom chuckled, his straight white teeth shining in the dim light. Somehow his dark eyes managed to catch the little light that hit them from the middle of the room. “I can see the answer on your face. You would, wouldn’t you?”

He nodded, looking out at the room without seeing it, and when he spoke, he spoke confidently. “I would.”

“That is what I expected you to say,” Absalom murmured. “I’m sure Amelia feels the same way.” He looked up, toward the door behind which Amelia and the baby were quietly playing out their battle of wills. Then he turned back to Rob, took his hand firmly and shook it. “I must be on my way. May God bless you, sir.”

He shook his hand, and then watched as Absalom turned and left through the swollen door with the care and caution of a rabbit that wishes to remain unspotted. Rob stood there, watching where he had gone, until he heard his car start up and set off down the road. Then he turned, picked up all of the plastic bags lying by the wall, and carried them to the bedroom.

The bedroom door seemed loud as he gently pushed it open with his shoulder, aware of how quiet it was on the other side. When he walked in Amelia was asleep on her side, and in the crook of her arm Ayden slept too, curled up neatly against her. Rob quietly put the bags down by the dresser, changed into an undershirt, and crawled into the bed with them. Neither of them stirred as he wrapped his arms around them both and closed his eyes, letting heavy sleep overcome him.

---

Bright artificial light seeped through his eyelids as he slowly woke up. Squeezing his eyes shut, he turned slowly to his side, trying to avoid the bright light and steal another minute of sleep. He clutched the pillow under his head, burying his eyes in it as he tried to turn away.

“Daddy…!”

He ignored the voice, uncertain whether it existed in his hazy mind or in the real world. A little hand began to tug on the blanket by his knee, insistent but slight.

“Wake up!” the voice hissed, pulling rougher on the blankets. He groaned quietly, trying not to hear the person calling to him.

A little body suddenly flopped on top of him, forcing him to roll onto his back and turn his face to the ceiling. “Wake up, Daddy!” the child cried impatiently, sitting on his chest.

He sighed, slowly bringing his hands to his face and rubbing his eyes. And for the first time that morning, he realized that something was off. The bed below him was different from the one he had fallen asleep on last night… softer. The blankets were thicker, warmer, and he was not wearing just an undershirt anymore: he was clothed in soft linens that smelled of wildflowers. Suddenly aware that the child sitting on him was not just in his dreams, he slowly took his hands off his face and opened his eyes.

The child had big brown eyes and dark hair. Her face was round, almost pudgy in her youth, and she looked impatient, ready to jump on him again if he did not get up. A very familiar face. A face that he was never supposed to see again.

Rob’s breath caught in his throat.

Grace?

He sat up so quickly that the little girl fell onto her back with a surprised squeal. Realizing what he had done, he took her in both arms and pulled her close to him. A feeling of shock, joy and confusion surged through his body with so much power that it threatened to tear him apart.

Grace squirmed in his arms, trying desperately to escape his iron grip. “Ah! Let me go!” she grunted, pulling her arm free and pushing against his chest. When he was convinced that she would not fade away when he released her, he loosened his grip. Before she was fully out of his grasp she was on her feet, jumping on the bed like an excited puppy, her pink silk pajamas fluttering around her arms and legs as she jumped. She was grinning at him excitedly, as if she could not control her energy any longer.

“Is he awake?” came a voice from down the hall, followed by the sound of bare feet on a hard floor. Rob turned, and watched as two more children, Emily and John, like heavenly angels, walked into the room. Upon seeing him Emily’s face lit up, and she grinned gloriously and rocked on her heels as if she could not contain her excitement.

Grace dropped to her knees beside him and poked his face with a short finger. “He’s acting weird today.”

Emily did not seem to hear her. She turned, looking back down the hall from which she came, and gestured hurriedly. The older blonde took the little boy’s hand and moved out of the way as a short woman with light brown hair and pale skin walked into the room, holding a massive platter in her hands. Several plates filled its surface, their scents wafting to Rob and making his mouth water.

“Happy birthday!” the two little girls said together, throwing their hands into the air. Emily picked up John and Grace made room for them on the bed as they huddled around Rob. The woman carrying the tray placed it on the large night stand by the bed and smiled down at him.

“We made everything, Daddy!” Grace trilled, leaning on his shoulder to peer at the food on the platter proudly. “Edna only helped us a little.”

The short woman, Edna, laughed light-heartedly. “They were very good in the kitchen. I only helped them with the stove!” she said, making the three kids beam.

Rob stared at the platter with wide eyes, trying for a moment to register what was happening. Grace, Emily, and John waited in silence, but when the silence grew too long for her Emily asked, “What’s wrong, Dad? Did we do something wrong?”

“No, no, no,” Rob said quickly, his breath almost catching in his throat. He turned to them, looking at each of his three children in turn, and tried to keep the tears out of his eyes. Then he gathered them up in his arms and held them all to him, stroked their hair, felt their hearts beat against his chest. “You’re all perfect.”

He was rewarded by three big hugs and a wet kiss from John. “We love you, Dad-day,” the toddler said, trying to smile behind the hand that had not left his mouth since he had walked into the room.

Rob laughed, still unable to believe. He looked at the food, taking in everything that had been made for him. Blueberry pancakes of all shapes were piled on one plate; another held two jugs and a mug, one filled with orange juice, one with water, and the mug contained coffee. Beside the drinks was a bottle of syrup. On a napkin-covered plate was enough bacon for the four of them, and on another a pile of scrambled eggs.

He let out the breath that he had been holding unconsciously. Looking again at the two little girls and the little boy, he tried to make sense of it again, but before the moment could be made too long, he took the pile of plates at the edge of the platter and handed one to each of them. “Thank you, Edna,” he said, looking up at the short woman and nodding gratefully. She smiled back at him, and then turned and left the room without a word.

Rob gave everyone a pancake and two strips of bacon, and they ate and laughed and talked. Before their meal was over John had spilled syrup on the bed sheets, but nobody cared at all.

It was nearly noon before Rob was out of bed. Grace and Emily led them downstairs, and Rob carried John. When they sat down in the living room Rob received three cards; one was made out of green construction paper and had streamers and a long note in it, one had a colorful picture of Rob on the cover and a heart on the inside, and one was a scribble of crayon markings with the only discernible words being in Emily’s handwriting. Inside this one read, “Happy Birthday! From, John.”

The cards remained on the glass table in the living room when the four played Candy Land on the soft cream carpet in the same room, and after the end of the game Edna appeared in the doorway of the room.

“Emily, Grace, and Jonathan,” she said, putting her hands on her hips, “You all promised that if I cleaned the kitchen, you would clean your rooms.”

“Aww,” all three said in unison, and John buried his face in the thick carpet.

“Come on,” Edna said insistently. “It will only take a minute. They’re not that messy.”

“Mmm,” Emily groaned, looking back at her father with pleading blue eyes.

He simply shrugged, though he could not help the blissful smile that was plastered onto his face. “A promise is a promise. You know that.”

Emily dropped her head, and her thick blond hair covered her face for a moment. Then she sighed, got to her feet, and started back up the stairs. “Come on, guys. It’ll only take a minute.”

Like loyal soldiers Grace and John scrambled to their feet and quickly followed their older sister. Rob watched them march up the stairs, go into their bedrooms, and he laughed quietly when Emily lightly slammed the door behind her. He looked at Edna, who grinned at him knowingly and then turned and went back the way she came.

Rob pulled himself from the floor and stared for a moment at the board game in front of him without really seeing it. It still did not make sense to him, how he could go to bed with nothing and wake up with everything. This house was incredible; a mansion was an understatement. It was a house he had not even allowed himself to dream of as a child. He had maids now who watched after his children. He had his children.

But he had not forgotten who he could not find. Amelia and Ayden were nowhere to be found; he kept expecting his wife to walk in with the baby at any time, but the more he waited, the more confused he grew. Perhaps they were out buying him a gift or running errands? He did not know. But he wanted them back so badly.

The house suddenly rung with the sound of a doorbell magnified ten times. It made Rob jump, and he heard a maid chuckle at him as she went to get the door. He stood, listening but unable to hear what was being said. Then when he heard footsteps, to his surprise Absalom was walking into the room, his hands in his pockets and a warm smile on his face. His dress was the same as the day before, but now his suit was white.

“Hello, Rob,” he said, offering his hand to him. Rob shook it as he added, “How have you been?”

Rob caught himself falling into the same nonchalant form of conversation he had been taught his whole life. “Well. And you?”

“I have been very well.” Absalom walked around him and sat down on the couch, and then watched Rob as he came to join him. In an instant the average line of conversation was broken.

“Was it what you thought it would be?” the man asked, his smile turning to one of knowing.

He stared at him blankly for a second, and seeing his mystification Absalom gestured to the room, the house, the new life around them.

Even then it still took Rob a moment to reply. “I-It’s… You did this?”

Absalom’s smile grew a little wider. “No. I simply asked you a question.”

There seemed to be a game being played here, and Rob felt like he did not know all the rules. “This is amazing. It’s… more than I thought it’d be.”

The man nodded, looking around the room with a sweeping gaze. “It is wonderful. Many people envy your life.”

He was silent for a moment, trying to decide how much needed to be said and how much did not. Finally his brows became a straight line and he asked, “Where is my wife? And Ayden?”

“Aah,” Absalom sighed, closing his eyes for a moment as his smile faded away. He reached into his pant pocket, withdrew a folded up piece of paper, and handed it to him.

Rob bit his lip as he looked at the piece of paper suspiciously. Very slowly he reached out one hand and took it, holding it as if the slightest pressure would shatter it to pieces. Then he unfolded it, and at seeing the words printed upon it, dropped it into his lap.

It was a newspaper article, the front page. The first story in big bold letters read, Wife of Billionaire Killed in Car Crash. The date was three years before the current date.

“Your son,” Absalom said, picking the paper up, “was never born.”

His head fell into his hands as he shook in shock. “God, no,” he whispered. “Amelia…”

“I’m so sorry, my friend.” Absalom’s hand was on his shoulder, strong and comforting. “This is a very different life…”

“What have I done?” his voice was a raspy whisper spoken through his hands. Suddenly the world around him felt incredibly fragile, too fragile to even withstand his gaze. He sucked in a breath, trying to control the shivers running up his spine. “Ayden…”

“You got what you wanted, Rob.”

He looked up, his dull eyes staring deep into Absalom’s warm, dark eyes. He tried for a single moment to think that this was all his fault, that he had taken everything meaningful from him. But he knew that was a lie.

Rob stared at his knees, trying to grasp the impact of all that was being told to him as tears slid down his face. “I didn’t think it’d be like this. I… didn’t want a trade. Hell, I didn’t think I’d get anything!”

“Would you change it all now?” Absalom’s voice had a serious edge to it. When Rob looked up, his eyes were hard, intense, and he knew this question was important.

Unlike the first time Absalom had asked him a question, Rob truly thought through the one being asked of him now. He had gained his three children, and he had lost their mother and his baby. He had gained wealth beyond his wildest dreams, and a massive house. It was everything that he had ever wanted, but he was missing them. Why couldn’t he have it all?

He closed his eyes, and he could hear the laughter of the three children, and their running about, and he remembered what it had felt like to hold them again, to play with them. In his previous life their last days had been spent in hospital beds, their arms filled with IVs as medicine pumped through their bodies. Every day they had cried, begging him to make the pain go away, to take them home, to hold them. And he could not make them stop crying; he could not kiss the boo-boos and make them go away, he could not hold them in his arms without ripping the IVs from their fragile skin. For too long they had clung to that miserable place between painful life and death, and every day Rob and Amelia had seen their medical bills rise. When it was all over, and they had only Ayden left, he had no place to rest his head at night. Rob never wanted to experience anything like that again.

“Did Amelia die quickly?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes,” Absalom said. “They say she never felt a thing.”

Was that better? Was it better that their mother died painlessly instead of them dying slowly? Was it better that they would never know the baby brother that would have never known them before? John would never know his mother. Emily and Grace probably thought about her all the time. Was all that worth their lives? Were they truly happy?

They sounded happy. They looked happy. They were healthy. And he could care for them.

His head still hung, and his eyes were very far away and filled with tears. Finally, he answered Absalom’s question. “No. I don’t think I would.”

Absalom was silent for a moment; Rob realized that his hand was still on his shoulder only when he finally took it off. The suit-clad man produced for him a kerchief, and Rob dried his face and sucked in a shaky breath to steady himself. He looked up as he heard footsteps in the hall again. Emily was running down the hall toward the stairs, but when she peered through the railing and saw the two of them sitting on the couch she stopped. Grace nearly ran into her when she did, and together they both took in the sight below them.

Both the girls’ faces filled with excitement, and Grace began to jump up and down. “Uncle Absaloooom!” she squealed, and she and Emily raced each other down the stairs to meet him. Absalom rose from the couch and received them with outstretched arms, and they ran to him excitedly. He picked them right off the ground as he clutched them to him, and they squealed with laughter.

“Hello, girls!” he laughed, spinning them both around before setting them down again. “How are my two favorite goddaughters?”

“Happy Daddy’s birthday, Uncle Abasalom!” Grace said, grinning gloriously at him.

“Goddaughters?” Rob murmured to himself, looking at Absalom curiously. The man turned to him and smiled, and as benign as the expression was Rob once again felt like he was playing a game without knowing all the rules. Before he could really measure the look for what it was worth Absalom turned back to Grace and Emily, and the two began telling him about their day.

Over the girls’ chatter Rob heard another set of feet above, and he turned to see John slowly walking down the hall. The boy stopped and looked through the railing, his hand still in his mouth. His eyes skirted Absalom and his two sisters and instead rested on Rob.

Jumping from the couch, he quickly ran up the stairs and picked up the little boy. As he walked back down the stairs John gently poked his forehead. “What’s wrong, Dad-day?”

“Oh,” he said, looking away from the child, “Nothing, John. I’m just really happy. Are you happy?”

John nodded so vigorously that he made them both bounce a little as they came to the bottom of the stairs. Rob could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Yeah.”

“Well, then I am too.”

“You said dat already.”

Rob bit his lip, surprised by the smile that naturally formed there. “I know. I am just so glad that I have you.”