The fostering process, considerably more familiar this time around given their prior experience, moved forward with the same careful, patient thoroughness they’d once brought to Sam’s adoption — home studies, updated background checks, careful conversations with Dr. Osei confirming that the genetic risk calculus remained exactly as reassuring as it had been years earlier.

“Are we sure about this?” Ezra asked one evening, midway through the paperwork, not out of doubt but out of the same careful thoroughness that had defined every major decision of their life together. “Sam’s grown, thriving, building his own life. We could simply enjoy this quieter chapter, if that’s what we actually wanted.”

“Is that...