“No,” I said.

“I never stopped.

Not for one single day.

I have loved you your whole life and I love you right now and I will love you when you’re a grown man and I’m an old one.” He kept looking at the ceiling.

“Then why didn’t you come?” And there it was.

I did not say your stepmother lied to me. I did not defend myself.

He did not need my defense; he needed the truth in a size he could hold.