But the video call showed me that no such man existed.

A full day had passed.

He had slept, and showered, and given his successful presentation, and his mind had turned not once toward his daughter’s hospital bed but entirely toward his furniture and his dinner and his promotion.

There was no remorse to work with because there was no recognition that anything requiring remorse had occurred.

And you cannot repair what the other person does not even perceive as broken.

That was simply the truth of who he was, and he showed it to me plainly, and I finally believed him.