"Eliza." Eva looked surprised as she ran up to us out of breath. "What is she doing here?" Eliza shared a look with me, so I stepped up.

"Hi, Eva."

"Hi."

"To answer your question, I came to talk to you and Eliza about your mom."

"Did you find her?"

"I did." My breath hitched in the back of my throat. "Actually, that's not entirely true."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason Eliza came to see me wasn't just to find your mom."

"What do you mean?" Eva looked at me in confusion. "What else are you looking for?"

"What I mean is she already found your mom."

"You did?" She could hardly contain her excitement as she turned to Eliza. "But where is she? Does she want to see me?"

"She does," I answered after Eliza silently gestured to me to answer if I wanted to tell her. My heart beat wildly as I responded, almost as if those words were just waiting to flow out of my mouth. "She even has a picture she wants to show you when you were born. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Her eyes scanned the park, so I took that as an opportunity to slowly take the picture out of my pocket. I was more nervous about how Eva would react when she realized I was her birth mother. Eliza must have sensed it because she put a hand on my shoulder which gave me a little more confidence to see this through.

"Eva."

"Hmm." She seemed distracted as she turned back around. It was clear she was expecting somebody else to walk up to her or pop out from somewhere when that person was right in front of her.

"Look, honey. Hailey is trying to show you something." Eliza guided her to the picture in my hand. Eva froze as she stared at it, then gazed back at me as if she couldn't form the words. I didn't blame her. If I had been told this news when I was her age, I wouldn't have taken it well.

"I..I was tiny." Tracing an invisible circle around herself as a baby, she stared at the picture in front of her. "How big was I?"

"Just a little over seven pounds."

"Wow. That is small." She remarked, rocking back and forth on her heels. "What do I call you?

"How about we stick with Hailey."

"Okay. Hailey?"

"Hmm—"

"Can I have a minute to think about all this?"

"Sure." I watched her nod, then walk over to a nearby tree. She kicked at a piece of raised bark with her tennis shoe, then walked behind the tree and sat down.

"How are you doing with all this?" Eliza brought up the question after several minutes of silence between us.

"Even though I've been trained to deal with this every day, it's different when you're in the situation," I answered truthfully as I cast my eyes over to where Eva was sitting. "I've watched families get torn apart for a number of reasons that shouldn't even be possible. Here I am getting a second chance when others don't often have the opportunity."

"Then why do you still look unsure?"

"For years, I told no one about her," I admitted, keeping my voice low just in case Eva was listening. I wanted to explain everything to her eventually in a more simplified way, but not here. Not now. "There were so many things I couldn't get into that it was better to leave things alone."

"You thought it was better than no one knowing."

"For her safety, yes. That's why I gave her up in the first place. I also wanted her to have a mom and a dad who could be there for her."

"Is that still what you want?"

"Honestly, I don't know what I want." I shook my head, feeling my confusion mounting the longer I sat on that bench. "She deserves to have a family who loves her. Who can be there for her when she comes home from school, who tucks her in at night and is there when she has bad dreams. Someone who has the time to play with her and isn't worrying whether her mom will make it home or not."

"I like that you're a cop and a detective," Eva called over her shoulder as she stood up and came out from behind the tree. "You get to protect people when they can't, right?"

"Right." I gazed at her reddened eyes and I felt my stomach sink. "I work with some amazing people and we protect people all over Chicago." She smiled as I said that, which made me smile too. "Eva, I want to know if you're okay with me telling you all this—especially about me being your mom."

"I guess so." She shrugged her shoulders, looking mighty hesitant as she rocked back and forth on her heels. "You seem nice. I like it here too. I made a friend on the playground."

"I saw that." I beamed proudly, gesturing toward the little girl who was now playing a friendly game of tag. "She nice?"

"Very." She beamed back, her voice faltering as she called out my name. "Hailey?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to keep me?" She asked timidly, shuffling her feet through the grass. "It's okay if you don't." My stomach sunk even further at her response and I had to think of something fast. Telling the truth was always the best policy—at least in a way she could understand.

"I've always wanted you." I did. Inside it didn't seem like I did because of boundless questions floating through my mind and what if's. I surprised myself by saying those words when just last night I felt like I was questioning everything about this meeting with my daughter."

"If you always wanted me, why did you give me away?"

"One day, I hope to tell you everything you want to know. For now, I want you to know I gave you to someone who could keep you safe. Who could give you a nice home and somebody to care for you when I couldn't."

"I loved them." She jutted out her bottom lip as her gaze fell to the patch of grass in front of her.

"I know you did."

"What about now?" She asked slowly, tipping her chin back up to me with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Can you keep me safe?"

"That is a good question." I exchanged a look of reassurance with Eliza before turning back to Eva. "I try not to make promises I can't keep because I never want to hurt you or make you believe that I didn't. As much as I want to keep you, I'm scared too."

"You're scared?"

"Very," I emphasized on the word for good measure. Maybe I wasn't showing it enough, but she needed to know what she was getting into if she stayed.

"Why are you scared?" She moved closer to me, her little hands now resting on my knees.

"One thing I'm scared about is my job can be very dangerous at times, and there are people who sometimes want to hurt me and the people I work with. Which means they could want to hurt you too."

"Oh." She leaned on me while pondering this before getting a very big smile on her face. "You are protecting me." She pointed out, her smile growing even wider. "But you get the bad guys, right?"

"Sometimes we do. Other times it takes awhile."

"I guess I'm okay with that." She stared after a few minutes and put a finger to her mouth as she considered what she what she was agreeing to.

"Then I guess it's settled. You're coming home with me."