Chapter 23 - DAD’S APOLOGYDad apologized differently.
We were at a family-therapy office in Dayton.
He sat across from us.
No mother.
No Gary.
He said:
“I was sober. I was working. I could have gone back to court more consistently.”
I asked:
“Why didn’t you?”
“Money. Shame. Anger.”
Then:
“And because sometimes I convinced myself that leaving you out of the fighting was better than making you watch me fight for time.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know now.”
“Didn’t you think we’d believe you didn’t care?”
“I told myself when you were older, I’d explain.”
I laughed angrily.
“Everybody keeps saving explanations for later.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
Then Ethan asked:
“Why didn’t you come get us?”
Dad answered:
“Because parents cannot just take children because they believe the other house is wrong. There were court orders. And until I knew you were unsafe, I had to use the court.”
That mattered.
No heroic kidnapping.
No father bursting in and carrying us away.
He had waited outside our door because Mom asked him to come.
May you like
Then called 911 when immediate danger became real.
That was the line between rescue fantasy and adulthood.
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