I thought about all the evenings I’d stayed up paying bills and all the mornings I’d smiled at breakfast so Tommy wouldn’t know we had argued.

I had done some things badly.

I had done others with the best information and strength I possessed at the time.

“I’m working on that,” I told her.

It wasn’t a perfect answer, but it was true.

I no longer needed every decision to make me look victorious.

I wanted them to make my life honest.

PART 22