Elena said, “Yes.”
Sophie nodded as if that helped.
“Okay.”
Then she asked the question Jack feared most.
“Did you want me?”
Elena broke.
Not loudly.
Her entire face collapsed.
She covered her mouth.
Sophie stepped backward, frightened by the reaction.
Jack put one hand on her shoulder.
Elena forced herself to breathe.
“Yes.”
Sophie watched.
“Yes,” Elena repeated.
“I wanted you before you were born.”
Tears ran down her face.
“I wanted you after you were born.”
She pointed carefully toward the letters.
“I wanted you every birthday I missed.”
Sophie looked at the envelopes.
“You wrote those?”
“Yes.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
Sophie moved toward the workbench.
Jack handed her the first.
She could read well for seven, but the cursive was difficult.
“Can Dad read it?”
Elena’s eyes moved to Jack.
“If he wants.”
Sophie handed it to him.
Jack sat.
Read aloud.
He made it halfway through before his voice failed.
Sophie crawled onto his lap.
He continued.
Elena remained crouched across the garage floor.
No one invited her closer.
She did not assume she could.
When the letter ended, Sophie asked, “Did you send presents?”
Elena laughed weakly.
“Sometimes.”
“What?”
“First birthday, a rabbit.”
Sophie turned toward the stool.
Her stuffed rabbit sat there.
Jack froze.
“That came from federal victim services.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
Jack picked it up.
The rabbit was worn nearly flat around one ear.
“You sent this?”
Elena nodded slowly.
“It had a yellow ribbon.”
Jack remembered.
The ribbon disappeared years ago.
“Sophie slept with it every night for three years.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Sophie hugged the rabbit.
“You gave me Bunny?”
“Yes.”
For the first time, something changed in Sophie’s expression.
Not acceptance.
Connection.
Tiny.
Fragile.
Real.
She walked toward Elena.
Jack tensed.
Elena did not move.
Sophie stopped three feet away.
“Do you want to hug me?”
Elena looked at Jack.
He hated that she looked at him.
He understood why.
He nodded.
Elena looked back at Sophie.
“Only if you want.”
Sophie thought carefully.
“No.”
Pain crossed Elena’s face.
But she smiled.
“Okay.”
Sophie hugged the rabbit instead.
“Maybe later.”
Elena nodded.
“Maybe later.”
That became the beginning.
Not a reunion.
Not forgiveness.
Not family magically restored because blood had been proven.
A beginning.
Jack told Elena she could not stay across the street without rules.
She agreed.
No approaching Sophie at school.
No telling neighbors.
No surprise visits.
No calling herself Mom unless Sophie decided to.