For the first time, I felt she might be hearing what she’d helped cause.

Then she asked, almost inaudibly, “Did you think I wanted you to be alone?”

“You threatened Dad so he wouldn’t walk with me.

I don’t know what you pictured after that.”

“I wasn’t thinking,” she said.

It was not enough to repair everything.

But it was the first time Vanessa had admitted her actions existed outside the story of her own pain.

“I hope you and the kids are well,” I told her.