The hesitation in her voice hurt. He tried, for one moment, to put himself in her shoes. How would it feel suddenly learning about a child for the first time and not having any memories of your time together? He'd been through something vaguely similar when he learned about Elliott, but that was different — Elliott had no memories of him, either, and had a father he'd been living with his entire life. There wasn't a gaping hole in Elliott's life where Ben could have been, and there wasn't a pool of shared memories he was suddenly cut off from. A relationship he'd actually lost, instead of only the potential for one that had been removed. One of Ben's biggest ongoing insecurities was whether or not he would be a good father to his child; if he suddenly had no evidence one way or another...

"Yeah," he said very quietly. "Of course you were."

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