His life was not a lesser version of anybody else’s dream.

It was his.

Valuable.

Complete.

Still unfolding.

That night Connor gave himself permission to stop trying to become his father’s imaginary son.

He gave Patrick the chance to finally meet the son who had been there all along.

And he gave me something I had been waiting eighteen years to receive.

Not an apology.

Freedom.

The freedom to put down a burden that had never belonged to me.

And once I finally set it down, I never picked it up again.