Chapter 12 - The Dinner Where Nobody Could Hide
I asked Mom, Dad, and Arthur to meet at my parents’ dining table.
Nathan came with me.
Gigi stayed home.
I placed Marianne’s returned letters in front of them.
“Did you promise her she could stay in my life?”
Mom stared at the envelopes.
“Yes.”
“Did you mean it?”
“At the time.”
Dad removed his glasses.
I turned toward him.
“Did you agree with cutting her off permanently?”
He hesitated.
“No.”
Mom looked at him.
I almost laughed.
“Then why didn’t you stop it?”
Dad rubbed his forehead.
“Your mother was certain. I wasn’t.”
That sentence explained my childhood better than anything else.
Mom controlled.
Dad avoided.
Arthur obeyed.
And I was the person everyone claimed to be protecting.
Mom finally said, “Marianne kept relapsing.”
“So you stopped answering.”
“Yes.”
“For thirty-two years?”
Her eyes filled.
“I kept telling myself that every year you were safe proved I had made the right decision.”
I looked at her.
“You didn’t just protect me from Marianne.”
May you like
She swallowed.
“You protected yourself from ever having to wonder whether you were wrong.”
