You always excused her.” I had no defense.

She was right.

Every time Aurora had gently said my mother was being difficult, I’d reached for the easiest line to protect my own comfort. Mom’s just set in her ways.

She means well.

It’s a generational thing. I had confused avoiding hard conversations with keeping the peace.

While I bragged to colleagues about being a good husband and provider, my wife and daughter were quietly enduring a year of cruelty under my own roof, because I was too much of a coward to look.