Chapter 14 - DIANE ASKED TO SEE SOPHIETwo years after the kitchen incident, Diane requested contact.
Not through Marcus.
Through attorneys.
One supervised therapeutic meeting.
Sophie was nine.
I asked her.
“No.”
That was the answer.
Six months later, Diane sent a letter through the therapist.
No guilt.
No demand.
It said:
I called humiliation discipline. I was wrong. You did not deserve to be treated like an animal, and being sensitive was never something you had to earn your way out of.
Sophie read it.
Then folded it.
“Do you believe her?” I asked.
“She probably believes herself.”
Fair.
“Do you want to see her?”
“No.”
Also fair.
Marcus did not pressure.
That was perhaps the strongest evidence of his change.
Old Marcus would have said:
She’s your grandmother.
Family matters.
Give her a chance.
New Marcus said:
“Okay.”
One word.
Sophie noticed.
That mattered.
Then, nearly three years after the incident, Sophie asked:
“Is Grandma still mean?”
I answered carefully.
“I don’t know what she’s like every day.”
“Dad says she goes to therapy.”
“Yes.”
“Does therapy make people nice?”
“No.”
She laughed.
Good.
Then:
“I might want to see her when I’m older.”
“Okay.”
Not now.
May you like
Not never.
Choice.
