CHAPTER 183
Michael stepped out of the house with the measured gait of someone who'd spent ten years wondering about this exact moment. He was taller than I'd expected, with intelligent eyes that held none of the hypervigilance that characterized his siblings.
"So," he said, stopping about six feet away with his hands in his pockets, "you're my birth parents."
"Three of them," I replied, my voice steadier than I felt. "Lucas couldn't make the trip, but he wanted to be here."
"Three fathers and one mother. Margaret told me about your... unconventional family structure." There was no judgment in his voice, just curiosity. "That must have been complicated."
"It was the best part of our lives," Harry said quietly. "All of you were."
Michael studied Harry's face, processing the genuine emotion in those words. "Margaret also told me that you gave me up because your work was too dangerous for children. But then I did some research, and I found out you kept my siblings."
The question hung in the air between us, loaded with ten years of wondering and hurt that he was trying very hard not to show.
"We kept your siblings because we didn't know any better," I said honestly. "By the time you were born, we'd learned what our lifestyle was doing to children who grew up in it. You weren't unwanted, Michael. You were so wanted that we couldn't bear the thought of damaging you the way we'd damaged them."
"Damaged how?"
I looked at this young man who'd grown up calling other people Mom and Dad, and tried to figure out how to explain the psychological isolation that had become second nature to his siblings.
"Your sister Addison is thirty-eight and has never had a relationship that lasted longer than six months because she can't trust anyone who doesn't share her worldview. Your brother Liam lives alone and prefers it that way because he sees emotional intimacy as a security vulnerability. Elena is brilliant but has never formed a close friendship outside our immediate family."
"And you think that's because of how they were raised?"
"I think that's because they learned to see the world as fundamentally dangerous, which makes it very difficult to be vulnerable enough for normal human connection."
Michael was quiet for a moment, absorbing this information. "But you think I turned out differently because I was raised here?"
"Look at your life," Jax said. "You're in a committed relationship. You have close friends. You chose a career that has nothing to do with security or protection. You're planning a future that includes normal milestones like marriage and children."
"You know about Sarah?"
"Margaret mentioned her. She says you're planning to get engaged after graduate school."
Michael's face softened at the mention of his girlfriend. "Sarah's amazing. She's studying to be an elementary school teacher." He paused, looking at our faces. "She has no idea about any of this. About who you are or what you do."
"Are you going to tell her?"
"I don't know. How do you explain that your birth parents are internationally known for eliminating human trafficking networks? That your siblings were raised to be weapons disguised as humanitarian workers?"
The harsh assessment hit like a physical blow, but I couldn't argue with its accuracy.
"Is that why you agreed to see us?" Harry asked. "To tell us what you think of our choices?"
"No," Michael said, his voice softening. "I agreed to see you because I've been wondering my whole life whether you ever thought about me. Whether giving me up was a relief or a sacrifice."
"It was the hardest thing we've ever done," I said, feeling tears I'd been holding back for ten years finally start to fall. "There hasn't been a day in the past decade that we haven't wondered if we made the right choice."
"Did you?"
I looked at this confident, emotionally healthy young man who was planning a normal future with someone he loved, and compared him to his siblings who were brilliant but isolated.
"Yes," I said. "We did."
Michael nodded slowly, as if he'd been waiting ten years for that confirmation. "Margaret was right, then. You didn't give me up because you didn't want me. You gave me up because you wanted what was best for me."
"We wanted you to have choices we couldn't give you. We wanted you to be able to form normal relationships, to see the world as fundamentally safe instead of fundamentally threatening."
"And it worked. I do see the world as fundamentally safe. I trust people until they give me reason not to." He smiled slightly. "I collect vintage postcards, which is probably the most non-operational hobby imaginable."
Despite everything, I found myself smiling back. "That's wonderful."
"But there's something else I need to know."
"What?"
"Do you want me back? Now that I'm an adult who can make his own choices about risk and safety, are you here because you want a relationship with me?"
The question I'd been dreading, because the answer was so complicated.
"We want whatever you want," I said carefully. "If you want to have occasional contact, we'd be honored. If you want us to disappear and never contact you again, we'll respect that choice."
"And if I wanted to be part of your work? If I wanted to join the foundation?"
"We'd tell you no," Harry said immediately. "We'd tell you that you're too valuable as a normal person to waste on our mission."
"Too valuable how?"
"Because you're proof that it's possible to break the cycle," Jax explained. "Your normal life is more important than any contribution you could make to our work."
Michael was quiet for a long moment. "There's something I should probably tell you. About why I chose environmental engineering."
"What about it?"
"I want to work on clean water projects in developing countries. Places where children die from preventable diseases because they don't have access to safe drinking water." He looked at each of us in turn. "I thought maybe I could save them differently. Through infrastructure instead of intervention."
The revelation hit me like a thunderbolt. Despite growing up completely outside our world, Michael had still chosen a path that involved protecting innocent people.
"You chose to save children," I said. "Just in a different way."
"I chose to try to prevent them from needing to be saved in the first place."
There it was - the perfect synthesis of everything we'd hoped for. Michael had inherited our drive to protect innocent people, but channeled it into legitimate work that didn't require violence or moral compromise.
"I'd like to stay in touch," he said finally. "Not regularly, not as a replacement for the family that raised me. But I'd like to know you."
"We'd like that too," I said.
"Good. But there's one condition."
"What?"
"You never ask me to keep secrets from Sarah. If we're going to have a relationship, it has to be one she knows about and approves of."
Looking at Michael's serious face, I realized that he'd learned something his siblings never had - how to maintain loyalty to multiple people without betraying any of them.
"Deal," I said.
But as we exchanged contact information, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were about to discover whether love could bridge the gap between the family we'd chosen to become and the son we'd chosen to let go.
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