Jayden sat amidst the quiet of the room, his hand scattering his hair. The document that Ariel checked was opened down on the table across from him. He stepped forward to where it was, Dave was in front of him across the desk. He felt as if the weight of a mountain rested on his chest as he scrolled through the papers with furrows on his brow. Each sheet he flipped over whispered a story untold, the relation between his family and Ariel's, which he never could have imagined in many years to come.

He pulled out a faded photograph of his parents, arm in arm with Ariel's. There was...