Laura chose the location.
A children’s center with her advocate nearby.
I was terrified.
It sounds ridiculous.
I had negotiated deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
I had stood in courtrooms.
Boardrooms.
Bank negotiations.
Yet I sat on a foam floor mat afraid to move because a ten-month-old child was staring at me.
Mason crawled toward me first.
He grabbed my shoelace.
Then my finger.
His hand was so small it barely wrapped around it.
I stopped breathing.
Laura watched from across the room.
I looked at her.
“Can I pick him up?”
She hesitated.
Then nodded.
I lifted my son.
Mason touched my face.
Something inside me broke open.
I turned away so Laura wouldn’t see my eyes.
She saw anyway.
Luke took longer.
For three visits, he refused to come near me.