“You make my happiness sound like something I’m doing to you.”

“I wanted you at the service.”

“We thought you wanted space,” Beatrice said.

“Dad said you had a dinner.”

“We made the best decision we could.”

I could have kept asking which decision, at what time, and who believed it was best.

At that point, I did not yet have the records that would expose the rest of the story.

I had their absence and their explanations, which changed each time I asked.