It was about showing up for year eight, and year nine, and every quiet unapplauded year after.

People find that ending unsatisfying, sometimes, when I tell it.

They want the reunion.

They have been trained by a thousand stories to believe that a man’s genuine remorse ought to be rewarded with the return of the woman he wronged, that healing means the family reassembling into the shape it was supposed to have.

I understand the wish.

I do not share it.

Grayson becoming a decent father is a wonderful thing for my children and I am glad of it every single day — and it does not, and never will, entitle him to me.