June shook her head.
“Why not?”
June shrugged.
Declan felt the question enter the room and stay there.
School meant records.
Records meant agencies.
Agencies meant explanations.
Explanations meant the possibility of losing her before he even understood why he wanted her to stay.
That afternoon, while June napped on the sofa, Ember approached him in the kitchen.
“Is she going to stay with us?”
“I don’t know, sweetie.”
“I want her to stay.”
“I know.”
“She was all alone, Daddy. Like I would be if you weren’t here.”
Declan pulled his daughter into his arms.
“You will never be alone.”
Ember lifted her head.
“And June?”
Declan looked toward the living room. June slept curled around the doll, one hand resting on the teddy bear Ember had given her.
“We’ll see,” he said.
It was the safest answer.
It was also not enough.
That night, Ember kissed June’s forehead and whispered, “Good night, little sister.”
Declan heard it from the hallway.
June did not answer.
But she smiled in the dark.
Three days passed.
Then the truth came out quietly, in the middle of play.
Declan was putting away groceries when he heard June ask, “Ember, do you have a mommy?”
The question froze him with a bag of apples in his hand.
Ember was quiet.
“I used to,” she said. “She died when I was little. Now I have Daddy.”
“Oh.”
“What about you?” Ember asked. “Do you have a mommy and daddy?”
The silence that followed felt too long.
“My parents died in an accident,” June said slowly. “After that, nobody wanted me anymore.”
Declan gripped the counter.
Ember’s voice filled with outrage.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I went to an aunt’s house, then another family, then another. They said it was too hard. That I was too much trouble.”
“You’re not trouble,” Ember said immediately. “You’re quiet and sweet.”
“I tried to be good.”
The words were so small.
Declan had heard adults destroy companies, betray partners, manipulate contracts, lie under pressure.
Nothing had ever sounded as brutal as a five-year-old saying, I tried to be good.
“Is that why you were on the street?” Ember asked.
“The last family left me somewhere. They said someone would come. Nobody came.”
Declan closed his eyes.
The legal system had words for this. Neglect. Abandonment. Placement disruption. Failure of care.
Children had simpler words.
Nobody came.