Her fingers this time did not pull away when they touched his. She held his hand inside the towel and pressed it. And she finally looked up at him, and her eyes were full but steady. "Thank you," she said. It was the first time she had ever used those two words in his house.
He nodded. He did not trust his voice yet. The weeks after were the kind of weeks that belonged to paperwork. Darius went with Elena to the county courthouse. He drove her to the women's legal aid office two towns over.
They got the protective order. They got the paternity claim filed and sealed in a way that meant Marcus would not be on the child's birth certificate. The lawyer was a small, gray-haired woman with reading glasses on a chain, and she told Elena kindly but firmly that Marcus would be in custody for a long while, and that even when he came out, the order would still stand. Elena signed every form with a hand that no longer shook. It was almost 3 weeks after the arrest that the message came.
Darius was on the porch that evening when his phone buzzed on the railing. The number was Chanel's. He had not heard from her since the day she had stood in his kitchen. He almost did not open it. He did finally, and he read it twice.
"I saw the news. I'm glad you and Noah are all right. You've done better by him than I did even when I wasn't there. Tell him I'm sorry. Please."
He sat with the phone in his hand for a long time. He did not write back. He thought about it, and he did not. Some apologies are not for answering. Some apologies are for receiving and putting down.
He went inside, and he showed the message to Noah. The boy read it slowly, the way he read everything, his lips moving a little. When he was done, he handed the phone back. He thought about it for a minute. Then he picked up his pencil and went back to the picture he had been drawing on the kitchen table.
That was all. He did not cry. He did not ask questions. He had read it, and he had taken it, and he had gone on with what he was doing. Some wounds do not heal because they get answered.