Helen placed a perfect steak in front of Ethan. Then she dropped a blackened, smoking slab onto my five-year-old daughter’s plate.
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Chapter 23 / 27
Chapter 23 - ETHAN APOLOGIZES FOR NOTHING
Ethan was twenty-five when he asked Lily:
“Do you still think I benefited from you?”
They were sitting in my kitchen.
Lily laughed.
“You were seven.”
“I got extra stuff.”
“You were seven.”
“My camp.”
“You hated camp.”
“True.”
He looked serious.
“Still.”
Lily put down her coffee.
“You don’t owe me an apology for being a kid adults used to prove a point.”
Ethan nodded.
“What do I owe?”
“Never do it to your kids.”
“Deal.”
He later became a father.
His first child was a girl.
Helen was still alive then.
She sent a card.
No “active branch.”
No family hierarchy.
Just:
Welcome, Clara.
May you like
Ethan kept the card.
Progress can be very small.
