Chapter 13 - Grace Finally Told Her Father What the Secret Cost
Grace agreed to see Ethan with her therapist present.
I did not attend.
Afterward, she told me only what she wanted me to know.
“He apologized.”
“How do you feel?”
“Mad.”
“Okay.”
“He said he was trying to protect the family.”
I waited.
Grace rolled her eyes.
“I told him making your kid keep your girlfriend secret is not protecting the family.”
Fair.
Then she said:
“He cried.”
That surprised her.
“Did that make you feel better?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Kind of worse.”
“Why?”
“Because now I know he understands it was bad.”
That was fifteen-year-old logic.
Brutal.
Accurate.
Caleb’s relationship with Ethan remained different.
He missed his father.
Wanted weekends.
Wanted Nashville.
Wanted the pool.
Children in the same family are allowed different feelings.
May you like
I refused to make Grace’s anger the family truth.
I also refused to make Caleb’s love evidence that everything should be forgiven.
