I became her only parent overnight… but never legally.
She was too young to lose her father and to be shielded from the brutal reality of it.
I didn’t adopt her. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I didn’t want to take something that wasn’t mine to claim.
Her mother was still out there somewhere. And I told myself love didn’t need paperwork to be real.
Lily grew up. Graduated high school with honors. Got a part-time job at a bookstore. Started talking about college.
She wasn’t the little girl who used to fall asleep on my shoulder during movies anymore.
I didn’t adopt her.
We were close, but different. She was building her own life, and I was proud of that. Proud and a little heartbroken in the way every parent is when their child stops needing them quite so much.
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