For years I’d believed he failed to understand how badly he hurt me.

The admission revealed something worse: he had counted on my endurance.

“That’s the part I can’t forget,” I told him.

“You knew I would stay through nearly anything.

You treated it like permission.”

He nodded, no longer trying to soften the truth with explanations.

Inside the conference room, we reviewed the documents carefully.

We raised questions, corrected an inaccurate account balance, and postponed one section pending more information.