Chapter 16 - MY FATHER AT THE DOOR
My father did not move into my life immediately.
He asked.
“Can I visit Saturday?”
The first time, I almost said:
You’re my father. Stop asking.
Then I realized that was exactly why asking mattered.
“Yes.”
He arrived without security.
One driver remained outside because of ongoing threats.
He brought Lily a book.
Not jewelry.
Not a trust statement.
A book about planets.
She stared at him.
“You’re Mommy’s daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know you?”
He looked at me.
My choice.
I answered:
“Grandpa and I stopped talking for a long time.”
“Were you in trouble?”
“No.”
“Was he bad?”
“No.”
My father said:
“I made mistakes. Your mother needed space.”
Lily accepted this and opened the book.
Children are often less interested in adult mythology than adults expect.
My father and I were not magically repaired.
I accused him of hiding Project Crown.
He said legal privilege and my no-contact rule limited him.
I said he could have tried harder.
He said trying harder might have become ignoring my boundary.
Both.
He admitted his warning before my marriage had been too controlling.
“I treated information like proof you had to obey me.”
That sounded familiar.
“You and Eleanor hated each other because you were similar.”
He winced.
“Cruel.”
“True.”
“Possibly.”
We laughed for the first time in seven years.
May you like
Not forgiveness.
A beginning.
