Chapter 20 - Cindy’s Final Apology
Cindy developed heart disease in her seventies.
Not immediate death.
Medication.
Surgery.
Aging.
She requested a meeting with Sally.
Sally said no twice.
Third time, years later:
“Yes.”
They met at Sally’s house.
Not Cindy’s territory.
Lily, now sixteen, was upstairs.
Garrett not present.
Cindy looked around.
“You bought this?”
“Yes.”
“With the settlement?”
“Partly.”
Cindy nodded.
Then:
“It’s nice.”
Sally almost laughed.
“Thank you.”
Cindy held an envelope.
“I wrote this.”
Sally did not take immediately.
“What is it?”
“A list.”
“Of what?”
“Things I did.”
No excuses.
Sally accepted.
Inside:
Edited photograph.
Intercepted pregnancy letter.
$18,000 early transfer.
$420,000 transfer.
Certified birth notice.
False statements to Garrett.
Private investigator.
Employer calls.
False rent claim.
Custody threat.
Everything.
Then at bottom:
I did these things because I believed being Garrett’s mother gave me the right to control who influenced him.
Sally looked up.
Cindy continued.
“I thought if he needed me, I mattered.”
“Did you love him?”
“Yes.”
“You loved him badly.”
Cindy nodded.
“Yes.”
Then:
“And Lily?”
Cindy’s eyes filled.
“I treated her existence as a threat before I treated her as a child.”
That was the ugliest truth.
Sally asked:
“Do you expect forgiveness?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because you should not have to wonder whether I still think I was right.”
Sally looked at the list.
“Do you?”
“No.”
Silence.
Then Lily came downstairs unexpectedly.
Saw Cindy.
“Grandma?”
Cindy smiled.
“Hi.”
Lily looked at Sally.
“Okay?”
Sally nodded.
Lily hugged Cindy briefly.
Sally watched.
No jealousy.
Lily’s relationship with Cindy did not belong to Sally entirely.
Then Cindy left.
Sally kept the list.
Did she forgive?
Some.
Not everything.
Enough to stop needing Cindy to be punished emotionally every day.
May you like
Cindy’s legal punishment had ended.
The rest was life.
