“I didn’t come here to cause trouble between you two,” he said. “If you can’t help, I’ll understand.”
That almost made me angrier than Natalie’s comment.
Dad was apologizing for asking his own son for help when I could count on one hand the number of times he had ever asked me for anything significant.
“What is the money for?” I asked.
He looked toward the house before answering.
“The money isn’t exactly for me, Grant. I need certified copies of some documents. I need legal help. And there’s a test I have to take.”
None of those things belonged together in my mind.
Documents.
Legal help.
A test.
“What documents?”
He hesitated.
“Old adoption files.”
For a moment I thought I had misunderstood him.
“Whose adoption?”
His eyes moved toward the house again.
That second glance bothered me more than the first.
Dad was not simply uncomfortable discussing the subject.
He was checking where Natalie was.
“I need proof before I tell you everything,” he said.
“Proof of what?”
“Because otherwise, someone might say I’m getting confused.”
He stopped and swallowed.
“Or accuse me of trying to interfere with your marriage.”
There are sentences you hear and immediately understand.
Then there are sentences that keep expanding after they are spoken.
That was one of them.
Dad had not said Natalie’s name.
He did not need to.
“Who would accuse you of that?” I asked.
He would not answer.
Instead, he put one rough hand on my shoulder.
“I’m trying to give you something I should have given you a long time ago.”
I knew my father well enough to hear what was underneath those words.
Urgency.
Maybe fear.
But I also knew something else.
This was the man who had spent most of my life helping me without making me prove that I deserved it.
I was not going to make him stand in my backyard and justify every dollar.
“I’ll get it,” I said.
His face changed immediately.
Relief moved through it, but embarrassment stayed.
“I’ll pay you back.”
“You don’t have to.”
I went inside and opened the small safe beneath my office desk.
We kept emergency cash there.
I pulled out the money, put it together for Dad, and was about to return when Natalie appeared in the doorway behind me.
“You’re really giving him the money?”
