Chapter 23 - JULIAN AND DENISJulian met Denis for the first time in sixteen years.
I did not go.
He told me afterward.
“They look alike,” I said.
Julian laughed bitterly.
“Apparently.”
Denis apologized to him.
“For what?”
“For being the uncle everyone had to hide.”
Julian said:
“You didn’t drug Nora.”
Denis answered:
“No, but Mom learned to save people from me by hiding things. Maybe that habit started somewhere.”
That was too generous to Eleanor.
Still insightful.
The Whitmore family had spent decades managing shame through secrecy.
Denis’s addiction.
Grandfather’s anger.
Eleanor’s rescues.
Brooke’s role as fixer.
Julian’s avoidance.
Then I entered the family and mistook silence for privacy.
No more.
Julian told Denis:
“You didn’t cause this.”
Denis cried.
Later, he voluntarily changed medication-storage arrangements with his doctor and pharmacy.
May you like
Not because he was responsible.
Because being robbed once made safety practical.
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