For the first time, Chloe seemed slightly less guarded.
“Mom raised us by herself,” she said. “She worked nights. She studied while we slept. She missed things because she had to earn money.”
“I know she worked hard.”
“No,” Chloe replied. “You know it now. You didn’t know it when it mattered.”
I lowered my head.
“You’re right.”
Sophie leaned forward.
“We don’t need you to rescue us. We don’t need your money. We need you to understand that Mom didn’t make us fatherless. You did.”
The words left me with nothing to say.
So I listened.
They told me about their childhood.
They described the small apartment where they had learned to share a bedroom.
They told me how Marianne studied after putting them to bed.
They remembered the school science fair where she had arrived straight from work, still wearing her uniform.
They told me about the scholarship she had earned after completing her degree.
