When we got home, my dad just sat there, chain-smoking for half the night.

I told him in a low voice, “I didn’t steal anyone’s watch. I remember everything you taught me.”

My dad didn’t blame me or ask any more questions.

He just waited a long, long time before asking me sadly,

“Is it because of me that you’re being blamed for this?”

In the shadows, I saw my dad force a smile.

“I’m sorry, son,” his voice was raw. “I’m sorry I made it so you have to hang your head in shame, too.”

He told me the truth about what happened all those years ago.

But I already knew, really.

I was adopted. My dad found me.

“I wasn’t a man with many options, and you got really sick. That year, I begged and borrowed from everyone, but I was still a thousand dollars short for the medicine that would save your life.”

I saw my dad get lost in the memory, his eyes filled with a pain that hadn't faded over the years.

“I felt like I had no choice. But what’s done is done.”

“Once you cross that line, the shame is nailed to you forever. You can never shake it off.”

My dad’s voice got quieter and quieter.

It faded into the night wind.

Finally, I couldn’t tell if he was asking me or himself.

He wondered if my life would have been a lot better now, if someone else, someone not like him, had found me back then.

My dad’s health took a sudden turn for the worse.

My nerves were shot. I took a leave of absence from school.

I didn’t want to go anywhere; I just stayed by his side at the hospital.

One afternoon, when I was coming back from buying lunch, I saw Ethan standing outside the hospital room.

I stopped in my tracks. My already terrible mood soured even more.

Ethan had met my dad before.

With Chloe.

At my dad’s food cart.

I don’t remember the details clearly, just the mocking, disgusted tone of his voice as he asked me:

“This street food is so gross. How can you eat this?”

“And even if you can stomach it, do you really have to force Chloe to eat it with you?”

I remembered seeing Chloe take one bite, her perfect eyebrows knitting together.

She chewed a couple of times and then, like she couldn’t stand it, spit it out.

My dad was just standing there on the side of the road.

The wind was biting cold.

He just stared blankly at this group of rich kids.

Chloe and I had a huge fight that night.

Snapping back to the present, I stared at Ethan warily. “What do you want now?”

Ethan let out a small laugh. “Leo, if you were short on money, you should have just said so. You can’t let an illness like this go untreated.”

“We were classmates, after all. Chloe and I wouldn’t just stand by and do nothing.”

He held out a credit card to me.

“What’s this?”

“Your dad’s illness. I know a really good hospital I can refer you to.”

“But it’s in a city pretty far from here.”

“The back and forth would be exhausting, right?”

The hallway, smelling of disinfectant, was dead silent.

Ethan and I stared at each other for a long time.

Then he suddenly asked me, “Do you know why Chloe hasn’t been to school lately? Because she’s embarrassed.”

“She’s got that proud streak. You probably know that better than I do.”

“That’s why I’m the one here to see you alone today.”

Ethan’s words were like a swarm of tiny needles, stabbing into my chest.

Waves of pain washed over me.

I squeezed my hands into tight fists.

From inside the room, I could hear my dad’s hacking cough.

It sounded like a death drum, beating faster and faster.

In that moment, I felt like everything in front of me was turning to smoke.

When the smoke cleared, all that was left was this life-saving credit card.

I needed this money.