Chapter 2 - “SAY IT AGAIN”
Grant had negotiated billion-dollar deals without trembling.
That night, his hands shook so badly he had to press them against his knees.
“Evan.”
The boy stared.
Grant leaned closer.
“Can you hear me?”
No answer.
Then Evan touched his right ear.
Grant said his name again.
Nothing.
He shifted to Evan’s left.
“Evan?”
The boy’s eyes moved toward him.
Grant’s heart slammed against his ribs.
“Can you hear Daddy?”
Evan frowned.
Then made a small sound.
“Da…”
Grant covered his mouth.
Grace stood silently in the doorway.
She did not celebrate.
She did not say she had known.
She simply watched father and son look at each other as though they had both discovered a door nobody told them existed.
Grant whispered:
“Say it again.”
Evan became anxious.
His shoulders lifted.
Grant stopped immediately.
“No. Sorry.”
He had spent years treating his son’s progress like a medical report.
That night he realized how easily love could become another demand.
He held out his hand.
Evan looked at it.
Then placed his small palm inside.
Grant stayed there until three in the morning.
Sometimes speaking.
Sometimes silent.
Evan responded inconsistently.
A whispered word close to his left side sometimes made him turn.
Speech from across the room did not.
High-pitched sounds seemed more difficult.
When Grace softly tapped a wooden block behind him, Evan showed no reaction.
But when Grant hummed close beside him, the boy smiled.
That smile destroyed Grant.
His late wife, Caroline, used to hum the same tune.
He had not sung it since she died.
Apparently some part of him remembered.
May you like
And maybe Evan did too.
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