So I answered simply.
“No. You didn’t.”
He winced.
“But you still can.”
His eyes filled.
“Do you think you’ll ever forgive me?”
I thought carefully before answering.
“Forgiveness isn’t the same as access, Greg.”
He nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
“And love isn’t the same as financing someone’s destruction.”
He nodded again.
“I understand.”
For the first time, I thought he might actually mean it.
He started to walk away.
“Greg.”
He turned.
“Your father didn’t write that trust because he stopped loving you.”
“I know.”
“He wrote it because he finally understood something I took longer to learn.”
“What?”
I looked at the man I had spent most of my life trying to protect.
“Sometimes the most loving thing you can give someone is a consequence they cannot escape.”
Greg nodded.
Then he walked away.
Clara stepped beside me.
“You okay?”
I smiled.
“Fine.”
