We just forgot, for a while, how to defend it.” “I was giving you everything you needed,” Alvin said softly.

And Carmen shook her head, and answered him with the sentence that would change the rest of his life.

“You were sending money, Alvin,” she said.

“What we needed was to hear your voice.

Without feeling like we were taking up too much of your busy life.”

Those words hit Alvin harder than any accusation could have.

Because they were true, and he knew it the instant she said it.

For years, he had confused writing checks with being present.