“You let me believe you were doing that work while I was taking care of my mother,” I said.

“I know what I did,” Ethan said, his voice cracking.

“It was cowardly, lazy, and deceitful.

I let you drown because I was too weak to tell my mother that I wanted to manage my own life.”

He covered his face with both hands, his shoulders rising and falling in sharp, silent jerks.

Big, heavy drops slipped between his fingers and fell onto his denim jeans.

“I almost lost everything,” he choked out, his voice muffled behind his palms.