“Thank you for saying it,” I answered.

“I need time to trust that you mean it.” He accepted that.

Before he left, he asked whether I would teach him how to make Thomas’s vegetable soup.

It was an ordinary request, but unlike all the other requests of the last fourteen years, it didn’t involve a check.

I told him we could choose a Sunday.

PART 16

The first serious test of Daniel’s apology came when we met with Helen to discuss the documented business loan.

Daniel arrived with his accountant, who had prepared statements showing what the company could reasonably repay without collapsing.