Chapter 15 - Vanessa Sends Four Christmas Gifts
Eleven months later, four packages arrived.
One for each girl.
From Vanessa.
Nathan did not open them.
He gave the information to the girls’ therapist and followed the
boundaries established through the family and legal processes.
The children were not ready for contact.
The packages remained stored.
Emma asked:
“Does saying no make us mean?”
Nathan shook his head.
“No.”
“What if she’s sorry?”
“She can be sorry, and you can still need distance.”
Lily considered that.
“Can both be true?”
“Yes.”
Nathan had learned that too.
Vanessa’s remorse, whatever its depth, could not erase hunger.
Peter’s explanations could not erase the locks.
Nathan’s guilt could not erase his absence.
But none of those truths required the girls to remain trapped inside
what happened.
That Christmas they decorated cookies.
Grace covered hers in so much frosting it collapsed.
All four girls laughed.
Nathan took a photograph.
Not for social media.
May you like
Not for a company Christmas card.
Just because he wanted to remember the sound.
