Chapter 23 - Daniel’s apology
Daniel’s first apology had too many explanations.
“I was exhausted.”
“We were both desperate.”
“I thought Mom understood.”
“I didn’t know what she used.”
All true.
All placed before:
I failed you.
Therapy changed the order.
Nearly two years after the deaths, he wrote me a letter.
Not asking reconciliation.
He said:
When Mom admitted giving Owen something, I understood one essential fact: she had crossed a medical boundary with our baby without either parent’s consent. I treated the exact substance as the important question because that allowed me to avoid the real one.
Then:
I should have told you immediately.
Then:
Lucy’s phrase about snow gave me another chance to investigate. I dismissed it because I wanted to believe the problem had ended.
Then:
At the funeral, when my mother attacked you, I grabbed you because I was trying to control the scene instead of protecting the person being attacked. Telling you to leave was another version of the same failure.
That letter I believed.
It did not save the marriage.
May you like
It helped save something smaller.
Our ability to eventually co-parent Lucy.
