"I don't know what I'd say," Alan said, taking a deep breath and feeling like his lungs were being crushed down with it.
"His middle name is Dale," he found himself saying without meaning to. But the words just wanted to come out. "She told me that right after the birth, when she was still exhausted and she'd brought forth this little life, and-" he felt his nose and eyes tingle with the threat of tears. "And he was supposed to be mine once upon a time. I had promised her that we would be a family and even- even after that wasn't true anymore and I had to walk away... she still gave him my name." He did choke on the sob then, unable to keep it at bay. "He should have been my son, but I walked away."