Chapter 25 - MY FATHER’S LETTER
Dad wrote from custody.
The first letter defended himself.
I did not answer.
The second blamed fear.
No answer.
The third arrived eight months later.
Ethan,
I have spent most of my life believing that fairness means giving the most help to whoever appears least able to survive without it.
That sounds compassionate.
It gave me permission to punish competence.
You became the child I could borrow from, ask more from, disappoint, and depend upon because you kept functioning.
Lauren became the child I rescued because I was afraid she would fail if I stopped.
I harmed both of you.
Then:
I did the same thing to Noah before he was old enough to understand why.
I had to stop reading.
No apology could make that sentence harmless.
But it was accurate.
He wrote:
The forged guarantee was not an act of desperation in one night. It was the endpoint of years of believing your future was family property because you were the person most likely to survive losing part of it.
I kept the letter.
May you like
Did not forgive him immediately.
Understanding is not access.
