Not answering was a sort of answer, and the longer they talked the more Arthur was concerned. He took a sip from his bottle and tried to imagine himself in this scenario: certainly it was a non-zero possibility that he had a pre-Dezzie illegitimate child out there. The thing was - he never would have been in this situation, because he would have told Dez, even with things between them as they were. Things were bad, but she trusted him, and he trusted her - he could not remember ever lying to her.

"Ben," Art said, "The baby aside - you should feel like you get to... do things. Be a person. You know?"

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