Chapter 23 - Derek’s Last Apology
Derek was sixty-eight when diagnosed with pancreatic cancer? That feels too dramatic. Better heart failure or COPD? Let's say advanced heart failure. Ordinary enough.
He asked Noah to visit.
Noah did.
Rachel did not.
Derek:
“I want to say one thing.”
Noah:
“You've said many.”
Then:
“I spent years thinking hospital mistake gave me an excuse.”
“Yes.”
“It didn't.”
“No.”
Then:
“I also spent years saying your mother put Oliver in bin.”
“She did.”
“Yes.”
“And I used that to make myself less responsible for closing lid and stopping Margaret.”
Good.
Then:
“I was worse in some ways because I knew more.”
The Bennett label.
Heart chart.
Calls.
Then:
“I wanted an easier baby.”
Noah cried.
Derek:
“You deserved a father who wanted you, not ease.”
Then:
“I do want you.”
“I know.”
Then:
“Too late?”
“For childhood, yes.”
Hard.
“For now?”
Noah held hand.
“No.”
That was grace.
Then Derek asked about Rachel.
Noah:
“She’s fine.”
“Does she hate me?”
“Ask her.”
Derek had no contact.
He wrote one letter.
Rachel agreed receive.
I used your adoption fear to isolate you from Margaret. I told you she would replace you because I knew that was the fastest way to make you distrust her. I am sorry.
Rachel cried.
Then:
I also blamed you for Oliver after I had pushed things further.
No request.
Rachel replied:
I forgive you. I do not want a relationship.
Derek:
Understood.
He died months later.
No hidden estate.
Modest assets after debts.
Will left half to Noah, half to charity/parents? His parents maybe gone. Let's say Noah sole child, modest $92,000 net after debts. Noah inherited.
No moral drama.
He donated a little to hospital safety? Maybe no.
He used for daughter's education.
Then Rachel attended funeral?
No.
Noah did.
Margaret already gone.
Ethan went to support Noah, not Derek.
Laura/Oliver did not.
Fine.
Then Noah said at grave:
“I loved him.”
“Yes.”
“Does that make me stupid?”
“No.”
May you like
Same question Rachel once asked.
Family sentences repeat until answered better.
