As I pressed the password, the screen lit up, and a glaring image pierced my eyes—the wallpaper was no longer our family photo, but a picture of Liam, Vanessa, and Zeke. In the photo, Liam was holding Zeke, smiling gently, while Vanessa nestled on his shoulder; the three of them looked so happy and harmonious that it was almost blinding.
I forced back the sharp pain in my chest and opened his chat history with Vanessa. The chat box was filled with dense messages and thousands of photos, all of his daily life with Zeke—Zeke's first time rolling over, his first words, his first steps, he had carefully recorded every moment, and every word was full of fatherly love.
In a daze, memories flooded back. The night Leo was born, I held his soft, swaddled body, filled with joy, and begged Liam to take a family photo. He frowned and brushed me off, saying, "Leo is so small, his face is all wrinkled, what's the point of taking a family photo? We'll do it when he's older." I naively believed him, thinking he just didn't like having his picture taken. Later, I could only sneak Leo to his side while he was asleep and take a blurry photo—the only picture of the three of us together.