Chapter 77

He still felt funny taking the money. Was it because he had a hard time believing Tam when he said, “This is going to be our baby, as much as the ones we’re going to have”?

Hope replaced fear when they visited the present orphanage, next to the building site. Quinn wanted Tam to see it for himself, to understand what he was really investing in, but perhaps more so to understand just what was at stake in their relationship. Tam had always been good with kids. Here they clung to his legs and climbed into his arms like creatures seeking shelter amid the branches of a spreading oak. All but two. They were brothers with brush cuts and large, dark eyes who, until recently, had worked the streets selling chewing gum—all at the ages of seven and six. They were hesitant, though, to receive the backpacks filled with goodies that Quinn and Tam had for each child and that were nearly as big as they. Only after Nir, the elder boy, gestured that it was all right did Lan come forward.