He said I was humiliating him, that Marcus had manipulated me, and that Sloan was crying.

Then his voice shifted.

“Mom, you know I had a lot on my mind.

You shouldn’t have pushed me.

You know how you get.”

That was the moment I knew the letter hadn’t reached the place in him I wished it would.

He wasn’t apologizing for what he’d done.

He was trying to make me responsible for it.