didn’t demand equal treatment.
She didn’t ask for holidays.
She didn’t say, “I’m your mother,” as though biology automatically gave her rights.
She answered questions.
Some questions made her cry.
Some made the girls angry.
When June asked why she hadn’t come back after Marcus left, Vanessa said,
“Because I was a coward.”
When Ava asked why she hadn’t tried harder after the letters stopped, Vanessa said,
“I convinced myself I was protecting myself from rejection.”
And when Claire asked the hardest question—
“Do you regret leaving us, or do you regret what leaving cost you?”
Vanessa took a long time to answer.
Finally, she said,
“Both.”
It wasn’t a beautiful answer.
But it was honest.
And honesty was the only thing anyone could build from now.
Part 10 — I Stayed
Months after the wedding, I found one of Vanessa’s old letters sitting on my kitchen table.
It had been
