Chapter 21 - Dad’s Apology
My father apologized five years later.
“For what?”
“For making you train.”
I stared.
“You didn’t make after sixteen.”
“I started because I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Your mother died? Wait she died when 22. Training started 14. He feared world. Maybe mugging of friend.”
He said:
“When you were thirteen, a girl from your school was assaulted walking home. I panicked.”
I remembered.
He signed me up judo.
I hated first.
Then loved.
“I thought if I made you strong enough, nothing could happen.”
“Dad.”
“I know.”
“Something did.”
“Yes.”
He cried.
Rare.
Then:
“I kept thinking if I had taught you more about people instead of grips…”
“No.”
He looked.
“Julian fooled you too.”
“Yes.”
“We cannot train betrayal out of life.”
He nodded.
Then he apologized for after attack control.
Calling building.
Tracking.
Asking where I was.
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“That didn’t give me right.”
Exactly.
Our family learned too.
Powerful parents can become controlling under banner protection.
I set limits.
Dad respected mostly.
Then his own aging.
At seventy, he asked me to become financial POA.
I laughed.
“Traumatizing.”
He laughed.
We executed properly.
Independent lawyer.
Notary present.
Video? No need, but we joked.
He said:
“See? This is how adults do it.”
I signed.
May you like
Consent.
That healed something.
