“They have been safe for four years without your money.”

I walked over to the window.

Outside, the Chicago rain was tapping against the glass.

The streetlights were just starting to flicker on.

“Toby has a favorite stuffed bear that cost ten dollars,” I said.

“Noah loves digging in the dirt at the park.”

“Leo wants to be a firefighter.”

“None of those things cost five million dollars, Blake.”

“I know that,” he said, his voice cracking.

“Then stop trying to buy your way into their lives,” I said.

He rubbed his face with both hands.

His shoulders shook slightly.

“I just want to see them,” he whispered.

“I want to know them.”

I looked at his wet coat hanging by the door.

He looked smaller than he did on the covers of the business magazines.

I knew the law.

If we went to court right now, his lawyers would make my life a nightmare.

But more than that, I didn’t want my boys to grow up wondering who their father was.

They deserved to know him, even if he had broken my heart.