Then I allowed them to feel whatever they felt.

Julian defended Charles.

Clara cried.

Gabriel investigated.

Nobody had to agree on the correct amount of love to retain for their father.

That freedom mattered.

Charles had spent decades controlling what we knew because he wanted to control what we felt.

I would not continue his mistake.

EPILOGUE — THEY ALREADY KNEW

A month after my husband died, I found twenty-seven years of rent receipts for another woman.