«Sometime later, I started my own small construction company. Nothing fancy, just home repairs and small renovations. I was hungry, reliable, and I charged less than the established guys. Word spread.»
«That’s incredible, building a business from nothing.»
«It helped that I didn’t know it was supposed to be impossible,» I said with a rueful smile. «I met Jessica when I was renovating her apartment. She was a teacher—stable, kind. She didn’t ask too many questions about my past, which I appreciated at the time.»
«When did you get married?»
«I was 32, she was 27. We had Ella two years later, then Ricky two years after that.» My voice caught slightly. «They were—they are—everything to me. Ella has this laugh that sounds like music, and Ricky collects rocks like they’re treasure. He always has his pockets full of them.»
Logan’s expression softened. «Do you see them?»
«Every other weekend, when I can afford it. Jessica moved back to her mother’s house, about an hour away. The kids don’t understand why Daddy lives in a car now, why I can’t take them to McDonald’s anymore.» I rubbed my face with my hands. «Ella asked me last month if I was sick because I looked so tired. How do you explain to an eight-year-old that sometimes life just falls apart?»
«You don’t have to live like that anymore,» Logan said quietly. «We can fix this, all of it.»
«I know, it’s just hard to believe it’s real. For 25 years, I’ve been Ezra Nobody, the guy with no past, no family, no safety net. When everything collapsed, there was no one to call, nowhere to go. I’ve gotten used to being alone.»
«You’re not alone anymore,» Logan said firmly. «And your kids, Ella and Ricky, they’re my niece and nephew. They’re family too.» The idea hit me like a physical force. I hadn’t thought of that.
«Well, start thinking about it now, because I want to meet them. I want to be the uncle who spoils them and teaches them things their parents don’t want them to know.» For the first time in months, I felt something that might have been hope for my children’s future.
«They’d like that,» I said. «Ricky especially. He’s always asking about family, why we don’t have family from my side—grandparents or aunts and uncles like his friends do.»
«Now they do. Now you all do.»
Two weeks later, I was standing in the parking lot of a family restaurant halfway between Logan’s apartment and Jessica’s mother’s house, watching my brother pace nervously beside his rental car. «You’re more nervous than I was on my first date,» I said, trying to lighten the mood.
«I’ve never been an uncle before,» Logan said, straightening his shirt for the third time. «What if they don’t like me? What if I say the wrong thing?»
«They’re six and eight, not a board of directors. Just be yourself.»
Jessica’s car pulled into the parking lot, and I felt the familiar mix of love and regret that came with seeing my children. Ella bounced out first, her dark curls escaping from her ponytail, followed by Ricky, who was indeed clutching a handful of rocks.
«Daddy!» Ella ran toward me, and I scooped her up, breathing in the scent of her strawberry shampoo. «Hey, sweetheart, I missed you.»
Ricky approached more cautiously, the way he always did in new situations. «Dad, who’s that man?»
I knelt down to his level. «Ricky, Ella, I want you to meet someone very special. This is your Uncle Logan.»
Ella’s eyes went wide. «We have an uncle?»
«You do now,» Logan said, crouching down to their height. «I’ve been looking forward to meeting you both for a very long time.»
«Dad said we don’t have any family,» Ricky said, studying Logan with the serious expression he wore when he was trying to figure something out.
«Well, sometimes family finds you when you least expect it,» Logan said gently. «What’s that you’ve got there?»
Ricky opened his palm to reveal three smooth stones. «I found them by the creek behind Grandma’s house. This one looks like a heart. See?»
Logan examined the rocks with the kind of serious attention that made Ricky beam. «These are incredible. You know, I used to collect rocks when I was your age. I still have some of them.»
«Really? Can I see them sometime?»
«Absolutely.»
While Logan and the kids talked, I caught Jessica’s eye and nodded toward the side of the building. She followed me, her expression cautious but not hostile. «He seems wonderful,» she said, glancing back at Logan, who was now showing Ella something on his phone.
«I know this is all sudden, but I wanted to talk to you about the kids, about how we move forward.»
She nodded. «They’ve been asking about you constantly. Ella wanted to know why you couldn’t come to her school play. Ricky asked if you were going to live in your car forever.» The words stung, but I pushed through.
«As I told you over the phone, my parents died years ago, but Logan insisted on sharing the inheritance with me. I didn’t want to accept, but he said it was the fair thing to do, that my parents would have wanted this. I can provide for them now—real support, not just the little I could scrape together before. I want to be present in their lives again.»
«I want that too,» she said, and I could hear the relief in her voice. «Ezra, I need you to know I didn’t keep them from you because I was angry. I was protecting them from seeing you struggle so much. It scared them.»
«I understand. I do.»
«But now,» she smiled, watching Ricky show Logan another rock, «now they can have their father back, and they can have an uncle who clearly adores them already.»
«We’ll never be what we were,» I said gently, «but we can be good parents together. We can give them stability.»
«That’s all I ever wanted. For them to feel secure, to know they’re loved by both their parents, even if those parents aren’t together anymore.»
Before I could respond, Ricky came running over. «Dad, Uncle Logan says he has a house with a pool! Can we go swimming?» I looked at Jessica, who nodded with a genuine smile.
«That sounds like fun, buddy. What do you think, Mom?»
«I think,» Jessica said, ruffling Ricky’s hair, «that Uncle Logan is going to spoil you both rotten.»
«That’s the plan,» Logan called out, walking over with Ella on his shoulders. «I have twenty-five years of uncle duties to catch up on.» As we headed into the restaurant, I felt grateful that Jessica and I could put our children first, that we could build something healthy from the pieces of what we’d lost.
Six months later, I was standing in the kitchen of my new apartment—not fancy, but mine, with my name on the lease and everything—making coffee for Logan, who had stopped by for our weekly breakfast. It had become a tradition, these Saturday mornings where we’d sit and talk and slowly build the relationship we’d lost. The memories hadn’t come flooding back like in the movies. Instead, they trickled in like water through a crack: a flash of recognition when Logan laughed a certain way, a sudden familiarity with the smell of our mother’s perfume when we visited her grave—small moments that felt like coming home to a place I’d never quite left.
«I have news,» Logan said as I handed him his coffee.
«Good news or bad news?»
«Good news. The insurance settlement came through.» We’d sued Carl Brennan’s estate, not for money, but for acknowledgment. The civil case had been straightforward once Detective Riley’s investigation provided the evidence. Brennan’s insurance company had agreed to a settlement that would cover my medical expenses from the original accident and provide compensation for the 25 years of lost life.
«How much?» I asked.
«Enough to start over properly. Enough to do whatever you want with your life.»
I sat down across from him, still getting used to the idea that I had choices again. «I’ve been thinking about that.»
«And?»
«I don’t think I want to go back to the construction business. I want to go back to school, get my GED, maybe take some college classes. I never got to finish high school.»
