Chapter 7 - THE PART THAT WAS MY FAULT
I wanted Margaret to be responsible for everything.
It would have been easier.
She lied.
She diverted money.
She isolated my wife.
She manipulated my daughter.
All true.
But Eleanor did not let me hide behind it.
One evening after Ethan fell asleep, we sat in the hotel courtyard.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
“That’s not useful.”
I almost smiled.
She had always hated vague apologies.
“I’m sorry I left for five years.”
“You thought you were saving us.”
“I also liked being successful again.”
She looked at me.
There.
Truth.
After my company failed, I felt humiliated.
Overseas, I became important.
Senior title.
Large projects.
People waiting for my decisions.
Every contract extension made financial sense.
And emotionally, it let me postpone coming home to a marriage that had become difficult.
“I should’ve checked the account with you directly.”
“Yes.”
“I should’ve come home sooner.”
“Yes.”
“I should have asked why every conversation with you sounded different from what Mom told me.”
“Yes.”
Each answer hurt.
Good.
“I believed her because her version made my absence easier to justify.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I looked down.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me because I found receipts.”
“I know.”
“Do you want a divorce?”
She took a long time.
“I don’t know.”
I nodded.
That was fair.
“I know I don’t want to go back to Margaret’s.”
“You won’t.”
“Don’t make promises you haven’t built yet.”
Another deserved hit.
So I built.
Not a mansion.
A rented three-bedroom townhouse.
My name and Eleanor’s both on the lease.
Direct account access for Eleanor.
No Margaret.
No intermediaries.
I took a local consulting position at half my overseas salary.
For the first time in years, I drove Ethan to school.
He barely spoke to me the first week.
Then one morning he asked:
“Are you going back?”
“No.”
“Ever?”
“Not for a long job.”
He looked out the window.
“Grandma said you liked it better there.”
I swallowed.
“I liked some parts.”
He waited.
“But I should have come home.”
That was the truth he deserved.
May you like
Not a heroic father returning to rescue everyone.
A father arriving five years late and deciding not to leave again.
