His words made me pause. There was just something in the way he spoke, in the way he behaved, that made me hold my tongue. I could simply tell him that I wasn’t going to do it. In fact, I didn’t even have to tell him that at all. I could simply walk away.

But I knew that I couldn’t do that to him. I knew that I at least owed him an explanation. Or more than just walking out.

He had given me more than any other person would have given the surrogate. And even ...