So I didn't call him again.
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***
Four years passed. Caleb grew taller, his voice got a little deeper, and he started reading chapter books on his own.
Thomas got promoted. We bought a house with a backyard big enough for a swing set.
My father wasn't part of any of it, but one day, he unexpectedly reappeared.
Four years passed.
Caleb and I had stopped at the grocery store after school. He was pushing the cart, carefully steering around other shoppers, when I looked up from my shopping list and saw my father.
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The past four years had aged him considerably. He was thinner now, his hair completely white.
But his gaze was as sharp and cutting as it had ever been.
I froze.
I looked up from my shopping list and saw my father.
"Mom?"
I glanced at Caleb, but I was too shocked to speak.
My gaze drifted back to Dad. Caleb noticed him then.
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"That's your dad, right? You two still don't talk?"
"No." I couldn't manage more than that.
"Why not?"
Caleb noticed him then.
I looked down at my son.
I couldn't tell him the whole truth — he didn't deserve that kind of hurt — so I gave him a partial truth instead.
"He doesn't accept my choice to be with you and your dad."
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Caleb nodded once, processing. Then he straightened his shoulders.
"Then I think I should tell him something."
I couldn't tell him the whole truth.
Before I could stop him, before I could even register what was happening, he walked straight toward my father.
My heart dropped into my stomach.
My father turned, confused at first, looking at this kid approaching him in the produce section.
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Then he spotted me trailing behind Caleb, still trying to stop him, and Dad's face went pale.
He walked straight toward my father.
Caleb stopped in front of him and looked up, calm and steady.
"What is this? What are you doing here?"
Caleb didn't answer that question.
"Julia is my family. She's my mom," he said instead.
My father scoffed.
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"She's my mom."
"No, she isn't." He waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "That's not how it works. Blood matters, and you'll never be her child because of that."
I started to move forward, to pull Caleb away, to end this before it got worse.
"Caleb, let's go," I said.
But Caleb wasn't done yet.
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