Chapter 102
Jack
"Dada."
The world could explode and I would still be here — frozen with the stupidest grin on my face.
I scoop Lanny up immediately. "Yes, I am your Dada."
He pats my cheek with his little hand, proud of himself.
Sure, maybe I repeated "dada" around him ten thousand times a day until his cute little brain associated my face with the sound — irrelevant. That's historical trivia. The only fact that matters is that he said it.
The surreal feeling of having Lanny never quite fades. Having never believed this chance would be mine, a persistent anxiety lives just beneath my joy, a haunting fear that it isn't real.
I'm half-convinced I'll wake one day to the crushing silence of a dream ended, the ghost of his laughter still echoing in an empty room.
But that fear is precisely what makes every single moment with my son feel so incredibly precious. Like when he looks at me, his little mouth forming the word, "Dada," and my heart just melts.
