I made a sound I’d never heard come out of me.
“Dawn, open the door.”
I unlocked it with shaking fingers.
He stepped in and saw the box on the bed.
I held up the bracelet. “It says Rowan.”
Watson went white.
“It says Rowan.”
His eyes moved to the photo, and he sat down hard beside me.
“No.”
I handed him the letter.
“Read it.”
He shook his head.
“Watson. Read it.”
His voice broke on the first line.
He shook his head.
“My name is Rowan. I was told you loved my brothers but couldn’t love all three of us.”
Watson covered his mouth.
I took the letter back and forced myself to continue.
“I didn’t believe that at first.
Then I found papers with your signatures. I don’t know if you gave me away or if someone made that choice for you. But I need the truth before I spend the rest of my life hating the wrong person.
I found your address in a locked folder my adoptive parents kept with my bracelet, placement papers, and your signed forms.”
“I didn’t believe that at first.”
I looked at Watson.
“I didn’t give him away.”
“I know.”
“I would’ve crawled through fire for him.”
“I know, Dawn.”
“Then why does he have our signatures?”
“I know, Dawn.”
Watson stared at the box. “What else is in there?”
I pulled out a copied form.
The words blurred at first. Medical release. Placement. Best interest. Extended care.
At the bottom was my signature.
It was thin, crooked, and barely mine.
Beside it was Watson’s.
“I don’t remember signing this,” I whispered.
“What else is in there?”
Watson took the page. His hands started to shake.
“I remember a clipboard.”
I looked at him. “What?”
“At the hospital, sweetheart. Your mother handed it to me. She said you had already signed. She said they needed mine so Rowan wouldn’t suffer.”
My stomach turned.
“What?”
“Peggy said that?”
He nodded. “She said you couldn’t face it. She said I had to be strong enough for both of us.”
I stood so fast the box nearly fell.
***
For eighteen years, I’d remembered pieces of that hospital night.
Doctor Jefferson walking toward us.
My mother wrapping her arms around me.
“She said you couldn’t face it.”
