became part of her life slowly.
Not as a man returning to claim a role.
As a person earning one.
When Mia eventually chose to call him Dad, she was six.
He cried afterward in the parking lot where she couldn’t see.
I knew because Priya happened to be there.
She told me only because David said it was okay.
I felt something surprising.
Relief.
Not because he had finally become what he should have been.
Because Mia had one more safe adult.
That was all I wanted.
Alessandro’s relationship with Mia continued too.
Completely differently.
He became Uncle Sandro because at two she could not say Alessandro.
The name stayed.
He objected.
Nobody cared.
He bought her one absurdly expensive wooden train set for her second birthday.
I returned it.
He replaced it with crayons.
Growth.
At four, Mia walked into his office with permission this time.
She sat
