“I also need you to understand something.

I’m not willing to be the easy daughter anymore.”

Dad looked up.

This time he didn’t tell me not to make a big deal of it.

PART 13

We sat on the stools beside my potting bench for nearly an hour.

I told Dad things I’d rehearsed in my head for years but never said without being interrupted.

I told him how lonely it had felt when he missed my first gallery opening because Vanessa had a fight with her boyfriend.