At 7:15 the following morning, a light appeared in a third-floor window. Preston watched Naomi’s silhouette move behind the curtains before two small figures began bouncing excitedly on the couch.
He smiled without realizing it, then suddenly found himself crying. He’d spent years accumulating wealth, collecting business awards, and appearing on financial magazine covers, yet he’d missed the first four years of his sons’ lives.
At eight o’clock, his business partner, Russell Dunn, called.
“Preston, where are you? The Japanese investors arrive at ten. We need you here to finalize the deal.”
The transaction was worth six hundred million dollars, and they’d spent eighteen months preparing it. Closing the agreement would give their company control of one of the Midwest’s largest development projects.
“I’m not coming, Russell.”
“What? You’re joking, right?”
“I’m on the South Side.”
“What the hell are you doing there?”
Preston looked toward the third-floor window.
“Trying to recover something more valuable than anything I’ve ever built.”
“If you don’t show up, we could lose the entire deal!”
“Then we’ll lose it.”
He ended the call, stepped out of his car, and crossed the street. Moments later, he pressed Naomi’s apartment buzzer.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Preston.”
After a long silence, the entrance door unlocked. When he reached the third floor, Naomi was waiting in the doorway, wearing a simple T-shirt with her hair tied up and exhaustion visible beneath her eyes.
“You shouldn’t have come this early.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
She glanced toward the kitchen, explaining that the boys were eating breakfast. Preston looked inside and noticed a modest but spotless apartment filled with children’s drawings, books, and the comforting smell of toast.
Before either adult could continue, a small voice called from the kitchen.
“Mom, who’s at the door?”
“Just a friend, sweetheart.”
A little boy appeared with round cheeks and chocolate smeared near his mouth. He approached Preston without hesitation.
“Hi! I’m Theo.”
Preston crouched to his height.
“Hello, Theo. I’m Preston.”
“Are you Mommy’s friend?”
“I’ve known your mom for a very long time.”
“Can you make paper airplanes?”
Preston blinked at the unexpected question.
“I think I can.”
“Good! Eli makes awesome ones, but mine always crash.”
Before Preston could respond, the second boy entered the room. Eli was quieter than his brother, holding a notebook filled with drawings of planets against his chest.
He studied Preston carefully, his dark eyes moving across the stranger’s face.
“Are you the man in the picture?”
Naomi froze, and Preston felt his heartbeat accelerate.
“What picture, buddy?”
Eli hurried to a shelf and returned holding an old wedding photograph. It showed Preston and Naomi leaving a church in Galena, smiling as they walked together after their ceremony.
“This picture. Mommy looks really pretty here.”
Preston gently touched the photograph.
“Yes. She was beautiful.”
Eli looked from the photograph to Preston again, clearly struggling to understand something.
“Then why aren’t you in any of our new pictures?”
Preston couldn’t find an answer. Naomi quietly asked Eli to finish his breakfast with Theo, promising they would talk later.
Once the boys returned to the kitchen, Preston turned toward his ex-wife.
“Naomi, please. I need to understand everything that happened.”
She led him to the kitchen table and opened a drawer, removing a thick blue folder filled with documents. Inside were pregnancy reports, ultrasound images, birth certificates, and photographs from the twins’ earliest days.
Preston picked up a picture showing two tiny babies inside hospital incubators. One infant had a small hand raised, while the other was surrounded by medical tubing.
“They were born at thirty-one weeks,” Naomi explained. “Theo weighed three and a half pounds. Eli barely weighed three.”
Preston stared at the photograph, imagining his sons fighting to survive while he attended business meetings without knowing they existed.
“Were you alone through all of this?”
“Mostly. My coworker Joanne visited whenever she could, and Frank from the bakery brought me food when I couldn’t bear leaving the hospital.”
Preston lowered the photograph, his eyes filling with tears.
“I should have been there.”
