Lily’s were pink.
Chloe’s were green.
They had chosen those colors without discussing it.
“Do we have to leave tomorrow?” Lily asked.
Alexander sat in a chair across from them.
“The court decides where you stay while they look for your father and any relatives.”
Chloe’s hands twisted in the blanket.
“So yes?”
“I’m going to do everything legally possible to keep you safe and together.”
Lily’s face tightened.
“That sounds like an adult answer.”
“It is.”
“Adult answers usually mean no.”
Alexander leaned forward.
“Then here is the answer I want to give you.
No.
You do not have to leave tomorrow.”
Chloe looked up.
“Can we stay longer?”
“Yes.”
“Even forever?”
The word frightened him more than any hostile boardroom ever had.
Forever meant school mornings, illnesses, nightmares, mistakes, birthdays, questions he might not know how to answer, and two hearts he could damage if he failed.
He remembered his own father solving every difficult emotion with distance.
Alexander moved from the chair and knelt in front of them.
“Yes,” he said.
“Even forever, if the court lets me.
And until it decides, I will be here every morning when you wake up.”
Lily narrowed her eyes.
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
The first morning, Alexander woke at four thirty from habit.
At five, he reviewed reports.
At six, he heard a sound outside his bedroom.
Lily and Chloe were sleeping on the hallway floor.
They had brought their blankets and curled up beside his door.
He crouched beside them.
“Why are you out here?”
Lily opened one eye.
“To see if you left.”
Alexander’s throat tightened.
He carried them back to bed, one at a time, and sat between the two mattresses until they fell asleep again.
The next night, they returned to the hallway.
On the third night, Alexander moved a chair into their room.
For two weeks, he slept in it.
During the day, the investigation deepened.
The girls’ father was eventually located in another state.
At first he claimed he had left them only briefly and had expected someone else to collect them.
The traffic footage contradicted him.
So did the empty apartment, the packed suitcase, and the message he had sent his landlord ending the lease before he abandoned the children.
When he learned who had found Lily and Chloe, his story changed.
He contacted Alexander directly.
“You think having money makes you their father?” he demanded.
“No,” Alexander said.
“Staying does.”
“You don’t know them.”
