MY BIOLOGICAL FATHER HANDED ME A BRAND NEW CAR FOR MY 17TH BIRTHDAY, THEN TOLD MY STEPDAD, “NOW HE KNOWS WHO HIS REAL FATHER IS.”
Marcus walked over slowly, glancing between me and my father, clearly unsure what was happening.
My father’s smile faltered slightly.
“What’s this?” Marcus asked, looking at the envelope.
“Open it,” I said. “Please.”
Everyone else went quiet, even my father, whatever irritation had been building in his face pausing long enough to watch too.
He slid a thumb under the flap and pulled out the papers inside. I watched his face while he read the top line.
His hands went still.
PETITION FOR ADULT ADOPTION, it said. Below that, in the space for the petitioner’s name, I’d already filled in mine.
“I talked to a lawyer three weeks ago,” I said. “Ms. Alvarado, downtown. She said once I turn eighteen in August, I can legally request this myself, no permission needed from anyone but you.”
My hands were shaking slightly too, I realized, watching his. I hadn’t expected that, hadn’t rehearsed for my own nerves showing up alongside his
Marcus’s eyes came up from the page, wet already.
“I need your signature,” I said. “Not today. Whenever you’re ready. But I wanted you to see it before anything else happened today.”
He read the first paragraph out loud, quietly, like he needed to hear the words in his own voice before he could believe them.
“I, the undersigned, request the court grant full and permanent legal parentage—” he stopped, his voice catching on the word permanent.
Behind him, I could see Mom pressing a hand to her mouth on the porch, and past her, Jonah and Lily standing frozen in the doorway, not fully understanding yet but clearly sensing this was the kind of moment you didn’t interrupt.
“Keep going,” I said. “It gets better.”
He didn’t keep reading out loud. He just kept reading, silently, his thumb pressed hard against the edge of the page like he was afraid it might disappear if he let go.
My father’s voice cut through the quiet driveway.
“What is this? Some kind of joke?”
I looked at him for the first time since he’d handed me the keys.
His face had gone somewhere between confused and offended, an expression I’d never actually seen on him before, mostly because I’d never spent enough time around him to catalog his expressions in the first place.
