And in the dining room she left behind, the family she had tried to dismantle sat together at the table, over a pot roast, for the first time in months, free.

Chapter 19 — Fix Your Own Life

Two days later, Veronica moved out of the house permanently.

And Derek chose to leave as well, taking a small apartment near a new job at a local building-supply firm.

But it was Manuel who made that decision, not Derek.

On the porch, the old man told his younger son the hardest and most loving thing he had ever said to him.

“I can’t teach you how to be a responsible man, Derek,” Manuel said, “if my first act is to let you hide behind my pity again.