“He knew that too.”

Helen put a hand on my sleeve.

“Don’t confuse your father’s silence with Walter’s disappointment.

They were different men.”

I sat in my car for a long time afterward.

There were some things you could understand in your head for years without allowing yourself to feel them.

I knew Walter loved me.

What I hadn’t accepted was that he had loved the life I’d chosen without demanding I become someone else.