For years, in my angriest and most wounded moments, I had imagined what it would feel like to hear those words from Theresa.

And now, sitting across from a broken woman who had finally seen herself clearly, I found that I felt no surge of victory at all.

I felt only a deep and quiet sense of closure.

“I accept your apology,” I said, and I meant it.

But I did not stop there, because forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things, and I had learned, at great cost, not to confuse them.

“But I need you to understand what my forgiveness does and does not mean.