A door away, there was a living room with colorful blocks and puzzles and toys littering around. I put the kid down there, and he immediately started doing a puzzle. Not the kind that had nine pieces. I found, watching him, on the box it said three hundred pieces. The kid was really something...

I stood at the doorway, just looking around the living room and the toddler. It felt so weird. Several pictures of a couple-a man with a content smile with a beautiful woman at his arm and-the kid. An itch started in my stomach. I looked away and watched the kid instead. Still...it felt wrong looking at him, right in the middle of the living room. I was an outsider yet this was-I think-my newfound home and life. And child.

Suddenly, the infant looked up and gave me the most intense stare I had ever seen a baby give. A chill ran down my spine.