‘Do you want to know my most closely guarded secret? When we’re alone together, just him and me, or me and Lini and him – when we’re alone, I call him Papa, and he calls me Son.’
Valentine made no effort to stop her tears from flowing, as if they flowed half for him and half for her. ‘So Ender does have children, after all,’ she said.
‘I learned how to be a father from him, and I’m a damned good one.’
‘You’d be surprised,’ said Valentine.
‘It’s a boring life, to read about,’ said Olhado. ‘Not to live, though.’
‘So the secret that you protect from your tormented siblings is – happiness.’
'...I thought: If I could just make a good family, if I could just learn to be to other children, their whole lives, what Andrew was, coming so late into ours, then that would mean more in the long run, it would be a finer accomplishment than anything I could ever do with my mind or my hands.’