“She has your stubbornness.”

“How are you?” I asked.

“We are good, Adrian,” Claire said.

“We have a small house near the water.”

“She has a garden in the back.”

“Is it safe?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“The police do not come to our street.”

“No one knows our old name.”

“Good,” I said.

“That is what I wanted.”

“I know,” Claire said.

A tear slipped down her cheek, but she did not wipe it away.

“I wanted to hate you, Adrian,” she said.

“For a long time, I did.”

“But then I looked at her, and I realized why you did it.”

“You gave us our lives.”

“I gave you the life you deserved,” I said.

“The one I could not give you myself.”

The guard near the door cleared his throat.

“Two minutes,” he said.

Claire nodded to him.

She looked back at me.

“We cannot come back, Adrian,” she said.

“It is too hard.”

“I understand,” I said.

“You should not come here.”

“This is no place for a child.”

“I wanted you to have this memory,” she said.