“I believe you are sorry today.

That doesn’t rewrite thirteen years.”

She explained that the girls had known about me from an age when they could understand that adults sometimes made harmful decisions.

She never told them I was dead, or heroic, or secretly waiting for the right moment.

She told them the truth in language they could carry.

“They had questions,” she said.

“They still do.

You do not get to demand that they answer yours first.”