He flinched.
“You let Mom turn me into the problem because it was easier than admitting I was the solution.”
His eyes reddened.
“Yes.”
One honest word.
A small one.
But the room changed around it.
He continued, voice rough. “I’m not asking you to stop the thirty days.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking if I can apologize to Emma and Noah.”
I looked at him for a long time.
“Not today.”
He nodded quickly. “Okay.”
“They are not props in your redemption.”
“I know.”
“They get to decide when they see you.”
“I know.”
“And if they never want to go back to that house, they don’t.”
Dad looked toward the window. Snow lay in dirty ridges along the curb.
“I don’t think any of us are going back to that house the same way.”
Then he told me what Brent had done.
It came out slowly at first, then all at once.
