Her husband cast her out for being “barren”—six years later, he came face to face with the son his own family had secretly hidden from him

at his hands. “Does he want to know me now?”

“Yes.”

“Do I have to know him?”

Isabella moved around the table and knelt beside him. “No one is going to force you. We will go slowly. You get to have feelings. All of them.”

Mateo thought about that.

Then he asked, “Does he like dragons?”

Isabella laughed through sudden tears. “I don’t know.”

Mateo nodded solemnly.continue reading …