Chapter 16 - MY FATHER’S EXPLANATION
Dad asked to meet alone.
No Mom.
No Ashley.
We sat in a diner where he used to take me after soccer.
I hated the nostalgia.
“I signed the recommendation.”
“I know.”
“I thought you had agreed.”
“Why?”
“Your mother said you had.”
“You didn’t call me.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“I should have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He looked older.
“Because I knew what you’d say.”
There.
The truth arrived accidentally.
“What would I say?”
“No.”
“So you approved something because you knew I wouldn’t.”
“No. That’s not—”
“Dad.”
He stopped.
“I thought if the trust handled it, you wouldn’t feel the cash leaving.”
I stared.
He had not understood anything.
“It still leaves my branch.”
“There is plenty.”
“For Noah.”
“Yes.”
“He is five.”
“So?”
Dad’s shoulders dropped.
He had used Ashley’s exact logic.
“He won’t need most of it for years.”
I whispered:
“You decided my child could wait because Emma wanted something now.”
“She needed stability.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“She needed adults who could tell her no without making her feel unloved.”
May you like
Dad looked down.
I realized he had never learned that either.
