Lillian decided to inform Zack about the son they conceived years earlier and arranged to meet him in Nashville on the boy’s sixth birthday. She flew in, reflecting on the past and their shared history, and arrived early at the park Zack chose, where he showed up late and largely unchanged by time.

Lillian told Zack directly about the baby she had given up for adoption, bracing for anger. Instead, Zack reacted with indifference, saying he had moved on; The Blacktoppers had broken up, his solo career was rising, and he was engaged to a powerful producer named Vivian. He asked if anything was required of him, and Lillian said no, feeling both relief and confirmation that her earlier decision to act alone had been right.

Lillian noted that Zack’s name was on the birth certificate and took some solace that at least he now knew the truth, avoiding a future confrontation. Sitting beside a bed of coneflowers, she tried to muster happiness for Zack’s success and future family, even as she felt the distance between their lives.

For the first and only time, Lillian considered trying to find the adoptive family and attend her son’s birthday, imagining the party details and wondering about his happiness. She rejected the idea, deciding that seeing him would be too painful and that not knowing protected the hope she had given him a better life.

Lillian flew home and recommitted emotionally to her present, eager to return to her gentle, “scruffy, soft-hearted” painter, a new relationship that had begun with quiet conversations and baklava and was helping her trust love again.