Chapter 17 - Hailey Asked the Question
Hailey was six when she finally asked.
"Why aren't you and Daddy married?"
I had known the question would come.
Still, I wasn't ready.
Daniel was upstairs.
Hailey and I were baking cookies.
I turned off the mixer.
"Because sometimes grown-ups realize they shouldn't stay married."
"Did Daddy do something bad?"
I chose my words carefully.
"Your dad made choices that hurt me."
Her face fell.
"Is Daddy bad?"
"No."
That answer mattered.
"People can make bad choices without being only bad."
She thought about it.
"Did he say sorry?"
"Yes."
"Did you forgive him?"
Harder question.
"I stopped being angry every day."
Apparently that was enough.
Hailey returned to decorating cookies.
That weekend, she asked Liam the same question.
He called afterward.
"What did you tell her?"
"The truth."
"What truth?"
"That I hurt you because I was selfish and dishonest."
I closed my eyes.
"Thank you."
"She asked if I still loved you."
I froze.
"What did you say?"
"That I love you because you're her mother."
He paused.
"But that loving someone doesn't mean you belong in their life the same way forever."
I looked across the room at Daniel reading.
For once, Liam had explained something better than I could.
Some endings weren't failures.
May you like
Sometimes an ending was the first honest thing two people had done in years.
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