Chapter 15 - Noah Decides What Happens To Ring
Two years later, police returned several pieces of evidence.
Among them was one replica wedding ring.
Daniel wanted it destroyed.
Noah, now six, asked what it was.
Daniel explained simply.
“Someone wore it to pretend to be me.”
Noah remembered.
“Other Daddy.”
“His name is David.”
“Is he bad?”
Daniel thought.
“David did some wrong things. He also told the truth later and is trying to do better.”
Noah picked up the ring.
“It’s fake?”
“Yes.”
Noah compared it with Daniel’s real wedding band.
Daniel no longer wore his.
The divorce was final.
Both rings now represented relationships that had ended for different reasons.
Noah asked:
“Can we not keep either?”
Daniel smiled.
“Yes.”
The replica went back through the proper evidence-disposal process.
Daniel placed his own wedding ring in a private box.
Not for Noah.
Not as a symbol.
Simply as part of his history.
He refused to let an object carry more meaning than people chose to give it.
David visited Noah occasionally under carefully agreed boundaries.
Noah eventually stopped calling him Other Daddy.
He called him Uncle David.
May you like
No one forced the title.
He chose it.
