hated me, already wanted you gone. I thought if you knew there was a chance, you’d wait around to see if I could recover—and then you’d resent me forever if I failed. Or worse, you’d realize you’d wasted years of your life on me when you could have had a normal life with someone else.“
“So you lied?” I asked, my voice rising. “For fifteen years? While I worked myself to exhaustion? While I sacrificed everything?“
He nodded miserably, unable to look at me, staring down at his hands.
My mother slammed her fist on our kitchen table, making both Michael and me jump.
“He contacted us,” she said, her voice dripping with bitterness. “Two years after the accident. He contacted your father and me. Asked us to help fund the surgery he needed—the one that could have helped him walk again. But only if we promised to never, ever
