“Grandpa,” she said softly.

“It’s okay now.

Mom brought the truth back.

You don’t have to be scared of it anymore.” And my father, who had held his fear alone for ten years, looked down at this child, this granddaughter with the steady eyes of the young man he had signed his name beside and the bright resilience of the daughter he had driven away, and something in him gave way at last, some final wall he had held up alone for ten long years.

He pulled Grace into his arms and wept into her hair, holding her as though he were trying to gather up, all at once, a decade of everything he had lost.