‘I knew there had been a trust.

I assumed the administrators would contact you, and your mother told me the details were being handled.

We had grown apart by then, and I let that answer stand.’

I felt a sharp disappointment.

Richard had been the person who arrived when everybody else failed.

I wanted his story to contain no mistakes.

But he was looking at me honestly, without excuses, and I understood that my trust in him had to make room for the truth of who he was rather than a perfect version.

‘That hurt,’ I told him.