They laughed together — awkwardly at first, as if they’d forgotten how, and then easily, the sound filling the whole apartment.
Their life rebuilt itself in small things.
Gretchen enrolled in the hospital-management program she’d put off for years because Joshua had called it a waste of money.
She read novels at night again.
She learned to make her own decisions without measuring the mood a husband would carry through the door.
Maxine started therapy and kept visiting her father on weekends, and Joshua had to learn to build a relationship with his daughter without expensive gifts or easy promises.
One afternoon Maxine came home from a weekend with him.
“Dad got a job at a smaller firm,” she said.
“He apologized to me for what he did.
I told him I don’t know if I can fully trust him yet.