“I know what I did,” Ethan said, his voice breaking.

“It was cowardly, lazy, and dishonest.

I let you drown because I was too weak to tell my mother I wanted to run my own life.”

He covered his face with both hands, his shoulders rising and falling in sharp, silent jerks.

Big, heavy tears slipped between his fingers and dropped onto his jeans.

“I almost lost everything,” he choked out, his voice muffled behind his palms.

“I stood in that ER hallway and almost let her walk me out the door while my baby girl was burning up with fever.”