Colette nodded.
“They’re adults now. They get to decide what relationship they want with you.”
“Thank you.”
“But I can’t be part of it.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“I understand.”
“This is probably the last time I’ll see you.”
Her face crumpled slightly.
“I’m sorry, Emmett.”
I believed she meant it.
That still didn’t give me back twelve years.
“I hope you find some peace,” I said.
Then I left.
The girls kept visiting her.
Sometimes I drove them. Sometimes one went alone. They didn’t tell me everything they talked about, and I stopped asking because those conversations belonged to them.
Brielle usually came home angry.
Taryn became quieter after every visit.
One evening, she came into my room and sat beside me.
“Is it terrible that I feel sorry for her?”
“No.”
“I still hate what she did.”
“You can hate what someone did and still feel sorry for them.”
