That response told us everything we needed to know.
Daniel’s mouth opened, then closed again.
Laura whispered, “We loved you.”
Rebecca answered her from somewhere behind Aaron and me. “That makes it worse.”
“Grandma worked herself to the bone all these years to look after us,” Mia said. “You can’t truly expect us to believe you spent a decade trying to find a way to come for us? Not after we’ve seen what real love looks like.”
Silence sat between us, heavy and complete.
“That makes it worse.”
I thought I would feel triumph or anger when they finally answered for what they’d done, but instead, I just felt hollowed out by their confession.
I looked at the son I had raised and the woman he had chosen and tried to find something left to save.
I could not.
Because standing there in that doorway, with all seven of my grandchildren behind me and my son on the porch like a stranger asking to be let in, the truth was plain.
